高等学校语言与文化阅读教材
大学英语立体化网络化系列教材
拓展课程教材
《澳大利亚社会与文化》
Introducing Australian Society and Culture
张华
编著
David Carter 审阅
北京大学出版社
PEKING UNIVERSITY PRESS
1
序
北京大学澳大利亚研究中心自 1996 年成立以来，一直将为全校本科生开设有关澳大利
亚介绍的课程作为主要目标之一。
所设课程最初为“澳大利亚概况”。授课者除英语系所聘的澳大利亚专家外，有校内外教
师和科研人员多人。如 2002 年秋季学期, 有澳大利亚使馆的政务参赞和文化参赞，北京大
学有英语系的胡壮麟教授、刘树森教授、周金福副教授、苏勇副教授和国际政治系的贾庆国
教授，中国社科院的韩锋研究员，人民大学的张勇先教授等。使用的是专家编写的内部发行
教材《澳大利亚概况》。
经过多年的摸索，2009 年春，北京大学教务部批准开设了“澳大利亚社会与文化”
（Introducing Australian Society and Culture）全校性英语专题课。授课教师为英语系的张
华副教授。关于开设这门课程的目的、内容和效果，张华老师在前言中有专门介绍，这里不
再重复。我想说的是为开设上述课程，张华老师克服种种困难编写了本教材《澳大利亚社会
与文化》，由北京大学出版社正式出版。这标志着我们在澳大利亚课程设置和教材建设上的
一个重大突破。
张华老师在 2000 至 2003 年曾担任北京大学澳大利亚研究中心的秘书，帮助我做了不
少管理、联络和组织工作。我涌远难忘我们两人曾经为中心经费匮乏和任务繁多而苦恼的那
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个岁月。尽管如此，张华老师在工作中的业绩是突出的。2002 年 11 月, 她曾组织和带领带
学生参加由澳大利亚使馆和人民大学主持的第二届澳大利亚知识竞赛，为学校获得一等奖。
她本人重视科学研究，2000 年 10 月 29-11 月 2 日西安外国语学院主持召开第七届中国澳大
利 亚 研 究 国 际 研 讨 会 ， 她 宣 读 了 论 文 “ Analysis on the Failure of Australian Republic
Referendum 1999 ”， 此论文 选 入 会议论 文 集 《中澳 合 作 的新篇 章 》 (A New Chapter of
Sino-Australian Cooperation)（杜瑞清主编， 西安交通大学出版社，2005 年 8 月）。最令人
感动的是，北京大学澳大利亚研究中心有多次机会推选教师和学生去澳大利亚考察和进修，
她总是把机会让给他人，没有向中心提出特殊要求。正因为如此，中心在讨论 2009-2010
年澳中理事会研究基金的申报时，坚决推荐她去澳大利亚昆士兰大学实地考察，收集材料，
进行学术交流。2010 年 8 月 12-26 日她去昆士兰大学大学的英语、媒体研究和艺术史等学
院访问，特别是在基金负责人 David Carter 教授的亲自指导下讨论了编写提纲，使本书得
以更好的完成。
作为中心主任，我感谢澳中理事会(Australia-China Council)对张华老师的考察提供经
费支持，也为本教材的出版提供了 2009-2010 年度研究基金的支持。
最后，感谢北京大学出版社在 2010 年 8 月通过了此课程的教材的出版计划。
北京大学澳大利亚中心主任
胡壮麟
2011 年 1 月 15 日
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前言
《澳大利亚社会与文化》（Introducing Australian Society and Culture）是
中国高等院校非英语专业大学生在完成国家教委规定的大学英语四级学习后的
一本英语拓展课程教材。它比较全面地从澳大利亚土著人历史，澳大利亚国家的
建立、本国的地理、政治、经济、文化、文学、传媒、电影工业以及体育等领域
来介绍这个由多元文化建构起来的国家。澳大利亚位于亚洲-太平洋地区，它的
地理位置决定了它在未来世界政治、经济和外交等方面的重要作用。因此，认识
澳大利亚这样一个国家，是构建二十一世纪青年学生跨学科知识框架中不可缺少
的一部分。深层次地了解澳大利亚的文化、政治和经济，可以帮助学生学习和分
享澳大利亚的多元文化成果，为日后从事跨学科研究积累知识经验。
2009 年春，北京大学教务部批准开设了《澳大利亚社会与文化》全校性英语专
题课。在开课的两年中，学生们通过《澳大利亚社会与文化》这个窗口，了解了
当代澳大利亚多元的社会文化形态，拓宽了文化视野并在此基础上建构对澳大利
亚多元文化的认同，对这个国家的兴趣和理解延伸了。
罗勍，05 级光华管理学院的学生，课上曾为同学们做了澳大利亚高等教育管理
模式的口头报告。出于对澳大利亚高等教育的认识，她放弃了去美国大学发展的
计划，把自己研究生的学习方向转向澳洲的大学。2009 年秋季她获得了昆士兰
大学商学院亚洲地区唯一一位全额奖学金。由于她在昆大的优异表现，2010 年
5 月被布里斯班市政厅（Brisbane City Council）授予“布里斯班国际学生大使”称
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号。马麟，07 级环境学院的学生，课上为同学们做了他研究课题的口头报告：
两种生物间的寄生关系在控制澳大利亚过度繁殖仙人掌中的应用。在他专业教授
的推荐下，他荣获了 2009-2010 学年度北京大学校长研究基金。董颖，08 级城
市与环境学院学生，参加了 2009-2010 年跨学科挑战杯“北京大学留学生跨文化
适应问题研究——以澳大利亚留学生为例”，从人文地理学和社会心理学的双重
视角，分析了澳大利亚留学生的语言适应、学业适应、人际互动适应、心理适应、
社会生活环境适应等多个方面的状况及其影响因素，为高校留学生教育和管理提
供科学依据。该挑战杯获得年度跨学科竞赛二等奖。
对澳大利亚生态环境的学习在课程教学安排中持续两周。在这两周中学生们自发
组织成研究小组，对澳大利亚生物多样性，有袋动物进化的滞后，政府的环保措
施的周密性，考拉州际保护法规的差异性，澳大利亚人的环保理念，中小学环境
教学分析等等问题搜集资料，在课上汇报研究成果。在 2009 年 8 月第三届国际
生态文学与环境教育：亚洲跨文化论坛上, 编者将学生们对澳大利亚生态环境的
讨论做了一个总结发言，受到与会生态学者的高度赞扬和广泛好评。他们认为北
京大学学生的视野跨出了自己国界，已经关注到别的国家生态环境，而且对生态
文化有着深刻、独道的思考。
2010 年 5 月 2009-2010 学年第二学期选课的学生与北京大学影视协会联合策
划组织了“第一届北京大学澳大利亚电影展映周”。电影周 7 部影片向青年学子们
展示了澳大利亚社会历史文化的发展和变迁。2009 年 9 月《澳大利亚社会与文
化》课荣获北京大学第二届网络课程大赛三等奖。此课程开课的两年间，在深入
研究澳大利亚社会与文化方面获得了可喜的社会效益。在全球化的语境背景下，
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此课程已经帮助学生认识到了二十一世纪的澳大利亚在世界和亚太地区发展的
潜力。
2010 年 8 月北京大学出版社通过了此课程的教材出版计划。同年，教材的出版
得到了澳中理事会(Australia-China Council)2009-2010 年度研究基金的支持。
《澳大利亚社会与文化》共分八章，每章展示一个主题，分别为地理与生态环境、
土著人与澳大利亚历史、政治与经济、教育与澳大利亚高等教育国际化、传媒与
电影工业、多元文化、文学、娱乐与体育。每章由三个部分组成：对主题的介绍、
反映这一主题阅读选文、选文注释以及练习。本教材有以下几个特点。第一，选
文新颖，客观。侧重评论分析，而不是一般性的知识介绍。第二，选文体现语言
深度和难度，对学生日后做专业阅读打下基础。第三，选文在本书出版前做为学
生课上的阅读教材，使用过四次而且反应很好。第四，选文注释细致，具有知识
的普及性。第五，练习紧扣选文并附有参考答案，以帮助读者在阅读原文后，为
检查自己理解准确性提供了方便。第六，教材的每个主题介绍和选文后面都配有
详细的词汇表，有助于读者更容易在阅读过程中查找单词和了解词义。
《澳大利亚社会与文化》共选了九篇文章做为学生了解澳大利亚社会和历史文化
的阅读材料。九篇选文得到作者以及出版商的认可。许多作者主动提供了大量的
参考背景资料，他们希望有更多的中国读者充分了解认识自己的国家。澳中理事
会主任 David Carter 教授阅读全书，提出了宝贵的建议。澳中理事会工作人员
Marilyn Barton 为编者在昆士兰大学(The University of Queensland)搜集资料提
供了技术帮助。在教材编写过程中昆士兰大学文学院 Richard Fotheringham 教
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授, Patricia Robinson 教授, Olga Chaourova 教授以及陈平教授都给予了极大的
关注。澳籍资深语言教师 Sally Lewis 参与了教材的选文、练习编写并做了大量
的校对工作。北京大学外国语学院澳大利亚研究中心主任胡壮麟教授学术缠身之
余亲自为教材做序。北京大学出版社黄瑞明老师在整个教材的编写过程中，耐心、
细致和严谨的治学态度保证了教材出版的质量。编者在此一一表示诚挚的感谢。
编者
2010 年 12 月 30 日
Contents
Chapter 1 Geography and ecological environment
1.1 Overview: An old continent and a unique environment
1.1.1 Geographical features
1.1.2 Rivers and lakes
1.1.3 The climate
1.1.4 States and territories
1.1.5 Ecological environment
1.2 Reading passage: Australian lungfish, Neocreatodus Forsteri,
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threatened by a new dam by Angela Arthington
Chapter 2 The Aborigines and Australian history
2.1 Overview
2.1.1 The earliest Australian history and cultural heritage
2.1.2 From British colony to an independent nation
2.2 Reading passage: War and national survival by Stephen Alomes
Chapter 3 Politics and economics
3.1
Overview
3.1.1 Australian politics: A British past and an Asian future
3.1.2 Australian economics: From a country riding on the sheeps’back
to a stable and competitive economy
3.2
Reading passage: Getting a Grip on Bonecrushers
by Tom Dusevic
Chapter 4 Education and globalization of Australia’s higher education
4.1
Overview: A well-developed system with high quality
4.1.1 The primary and secondary education
4.1.2 The higher education (Tertiary education)
4.1.3 International students
4.2 Reading passage: Globalization and Australia’s higher education by
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Hu Zhuanglin
Chapter 5 Mass media and film industry
5.1
Overview: Vigorous development and free expression
5.1.1 Newspaper
5.1.2 Television
5.1.3 Film industry
5.2 Reading passage: Creative nation: approaching Australian cinema
and cultural studies by Amit Sarwal and Reema Sarwal
Chapter 6 Multiculturalism
6.1 Overview: A cohesive and diverse country
6.1.1 Australian multiculturalism
6.1.2 The historical progress of multiculturalism
6.2 Reading passage 1: Is Australia a multicultural nation? by David
Carter
Reading passage 2: Cultural attitudes and Aussie communicative
style by Cliff Goddard
Chapter 7 Literature
7.1 Overview: From the bush myth to international recognition
7.1.1 The period of colonialism (1788-1888)
7.1.2 The period of nationalism (1889-1913)
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7.1.3 The period of the world wars (1914-1945)
7.1.4 The contemporary period (1946-now)
7.2 Reading passage: The Drover’s wife by Henry Lawson
Chapter 8 Recreations and sports
8.1 Overview: The recreational society and a sporting life
8.1.1 Australian national public holidays
8.1.2 A sporting life
8.2 Reading passage: A brief historical overview of sport and recreation
by David Mosler
Keys to Exercises
References
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Chapter 1 Geography and ecological environment
1.1 Overview: An old continent and a unique environment
Australia is a continent situated on the Indo-Australian Plate. The geology of
Australia includes virtually all known rock types. All geological time periods
span over 3.8 billion years of the Earth’s history. The evolution of Australian
continent provides rich mineral resources, wonder landscapes, and unique
ecological diversity.
1.1.1 Geographical features
Australia is located in Oceania, lying between the Indian and Pacific oceans,
southeast of Asia. On the North, it is adjoined by the Timor Sea, the Arafura
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Sea, and the Torres Strait. The Coral Sea and the Tasman Sea border on the
East. On the South it touches the Bass Strait and the Indian Ocean. On the
West it is by the Indian Ocean. Neighboring countries include Indonesia, East
Timor and Papua New Guinea to the north, the Solomon Islands, Vanuatu and
the French dependency of New Caledonia to the northeast, and New Zealand
to the southeast.
In area, Australia is the 6th largest nation after Russia, Canada, China, the
United States and Brazil. It is the only nation that occupies an entire continent.
Mainland Australia is the Earth’s largest island but smallest continent. At the
same time, it is one of the oldest landmasses and the flattest of the continents.
The Australian landscape is distinctive and varied. It comprises three major
structures: the Western Plateau, the Central Lowlands and the Eastern
Highlands.
The Western Highlands are characterized by a series of plateax, which also
take up nearly two-thirds of Australia. In fact the plateax have an average
elevation between 300 and 600 meters, with ranges, basins, and rocks below.
Much of the Western Plateau is relatively flat. Uluru (formerly known as Ayers
Rock) is probably the best known.
The Central Lowlands consist mainly of great sedimentary basins lying to the
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east of the Western Plateau. Most of this area is flat and low-lying. Much of the
Central Lowlands is occupied by the Great Artesian Basin, which is made up of
sedimentary rocks. It is full of water that drains into the wetter Eastern
Highlands.
The Eastern Highlands are shaped by a steep escarpment over much of their
length on the coastal side. This escarpment is a series of high plateaus with
more gentle slopes towards the interior. The coastal escarpment is more
prominent along much of the New South Wales and southern Queensland
coast, and along the more isolated ranges further north, such as those around
Cairns. Australia ’ s highest waterfalls occur where rivers flow over this
escarpment. A coastal strip between the escarpment and the coast is flat but
quite hilly in many places (Zhang Xianping，2007：4-6).
The Great Dividing Range, or Eastern Australian mountain range is Australia’s
most substantial mountain range and the 4th longest in the world. The Great
Dividing Range separates rivers flowing to central Australia or the
Murray-Darling Basin from those flowing to the Pacific Ocean or Bass Strait,
and so it is one of the few areas of high land in Australia, which is otherwise
dry, barren, flat, and sparsely populated. Because of the dry conditions of the
central parts, Australia has one of the most urbanized and coast-dwelling
populations in the world. More than 80 per cent of Australians live the coast.
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1.1.2 Rivers and lakes
Australia’s rivers form three groups: the coastal systems, the Murray Darling
System and the internal drainage of central Australia. Many of the coastal
rivers have long estuaries where the rising sea-level has penetrated far into
the land. The Murray and Darling rivers are the two longest river systems and
they form the Murray-Darling Basin, which covers more than one million
square kilometers – 14 per cent of the mainland. The Murray-Darling river
system is 3370 kilometres long, about half the length of the world’s longest
river, the Nile. The central plains region known as the Channel Country is
interlaced by a network of rivers. During the rainy season these rivers flood the
low-lying countryside, but in dry months they become a series of water holes.
There are many lake types in Australia. The largest are salt lakes which are
drainage sumps of internal rivers. For most of the time these lakes are beds of
salt and dry mud. Lake Eyre is the largest of these lakes. It is famous for being
the saltiest lake in Australia and it only fills up every century. Lake Eyre is on
the border of South Australia. The lake protects an important desert wilderness.
Some Australian animals drink the salty water without being harmed.
1.1.3 The climate
The climate of Australia, in general, is warm and dry. Winters are mild and
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summers warm to hot. Seasons are the reverse of those in the Northern
Hemisphere. The island continent features a wide range of climate zones, from
the tropical regions of the north, through the arid expanses of the interior, to
the temperate regions of the south. Australia is the world’s second-driest
continent after Antarctica. In most parts of the country summers are hot.
Winters are warm in the north and cooler in the south. Temperature
differences between winter and summer vary the least in tropical Australia. All
regions in Australia enjoy warm summers and relatively mild winters.
1.1.4 States and territories
Australia consists of six states and two territories.
Table 1 States and Territories
State/Territory
Abbreviation
Capital
New South Wales
NSW
Sydney
Victoria
VIC
Melbourne
Queensland
QLD
Brisbane
South Australia
SA
Adelaide
West Australia
WA
Perth
Tasmania
TAS
Hobart
the Northern Territory
NT
Darwin
the Australian Capital Territory
ACT
Canberra
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Australia also administers Ashmore and Cartier Islands, Christmas Island, the
Cocos (or Keeling) Islands, the Coral Sea Islands, Heard and McDonald
Islands, Norfolk Island and the Australian Antarctic Territory as external
territories (Wang Zhijin, 2004: 10).
1.1.5 Ecological environment
Australia’s geological history has made for a wide range of landscapes, climate,
plants and animals found on earth and Australia contains the world’s most
bio-diverse ecosystems. A richly diverse geology provides a wide range of
minerals such as bauxite, coal, iron, ore, copper, tin, gold, silver, uranium,
nickel, tungsten, mineral sands, lead, zinc, diamonds, natural gas, and
petroleum. These natural resources are what the economic development
depends on.
1.1.5.1 Plants
Australia has been isolated for thousands of years and plants have been able
to develop independently to suit the harsh and arid natural conditions. There
are four types of vegetation in Australia: open and closed forests; woodland
and grassland; scrub, and deserts as well. Evergreen, vegetation ranges from
the dense bushland and eucalyptus forests of the coast to the mulga and
mallee scrub and saltbush of the inland plains. In general, the plants can be
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divided into two types: one is the unique flora as the result of long period of
isolation and the other is the tropical plants originating in Asia which arrived in
the continent via land bridges. The native flora of Australia is the most diverse
and varied in the world, growing in tropical, rainforest, stony inland deserts,
and sandy heath lands. Golden wattles are Australian’s national flowers.
1.1.5.2 Animals
Forty million years of isolation from other major landmasses have given
Australia a collection of flora and fauna that is unique to the rest of the world.
The diverse conditions of the region have contributed to the evolution of
creatures and mammals with rare characteristics. Australia has rich types of
animals.
The native groups include marsupials and monotremes. There are more than
140 species of marsupials, such as kangaroo and the koala. Kangaroos are
the typical of the marsupials, for most of them are herbivorous. The Koala is a
tree-dwelling marsupial. It spends most of its life in trees. The monotremes are
egg-laying mammals. The most distinctive is the platypus and echidna. They
inhabit Australia’s eastern watercourses where they can find food in the water
and mud.
Exotic groups were introduced to Australia by British people for game
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purposes and for curiosity’s sake, for example, rabbits. Now some of new
animals have created new industries, like sheep, and others came to live in the
rural country.
In Australia, more than 700 birds including endemic and exotic ones are known.
Besides, reptiles, amphibians and insects are rich and unique in this country.
1.1.5.3 Heritages
According to the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade of Australian
government, there are 17 Australian properties on the World Heritage List,
which is administered by the United Nations Educational, Scientific, and
Cultural Organization.
The ten properties for their outstanding natural universal values are as follows:
(1)The Great Barrier Reef,
(2)The Lord Howe Island Group,
(3)Central Eastern Rainforest Reserves of Australia,
(4)The Wet Tropics of Queensland,
(5)Shark Bay,
(6)Fraser Island,
(7)The Australian Fossil Mammal Sites (Riversleigh/Naracoorte),
(8)Macquarie Island,
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(9)The Greater Blue Mountains Area,
(10)Heard and Mcdonald Islands.
The two following properties are known for their cultural values:
(1)The Royal Exhibition Building,
(2)The Sydney Opera House.
The five following properties are famous for both outstanding cultural and
natural universal values:
(1)Kakadu National Park,
(2)The Willandra Lakes Region,
(3)The Tasmanian Wilderness,
(4)Uluru–Kata Tjuta National Park,
(5)Purnululu National Park.
(World heritage properties, May 2008)
Australia ensures high quality management of its World Heritage areas
through
national
legislation
to
protect
these
values
involving
strict
environmental assessment process and a very high level of community and
Indigenous involvement in management.
1.1.5.4 Environmental challenges
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Australia is the driest continent and this presents a major challenge to its
fragile environment and directly impacts on its biodiversity. The following
issues are regarded as environmental challenges which Australia is facing.
First, climate change poses a particular threat to specific areas – such as
Australia’s mountain regions, the Great Barrier Reef, tropical rainforests, and
wetland systems. Australia’s economy and environment are highly susceptible
to the impact of climate change. Australia’s approach to climate change is
based on reducing Australia’s greenhouse gas emissions and adapting to the
climate change that we cannot avoid.
Secondly, Australia’s soils are among the most nutrient-poor and unproductive
in the world. Only around 6 percent of the Australian landmass is considered
arable. Australian soils are highly dependent on vegetation cover to generate
nutrients and provide stability. Water extraction and poor soil conservation are
all causes of a decline in the quality of Australia’s soils.
Lastly, introduced plants as biological invasion cause substantial damage to
native vegetation and habitats. For one thing, cactus was introduced to
Australia as an ornamental plant and was maintained in gardens for some time.
Then it escaped cultivation and became established in the wild, where it found
ideal physical conditions for its growth and reproduction. That formed a big
headache to Australians. For another, in the past 200 years about 17 different
Australian mammals have become extinct. Some Australian animals depend
20
on a specific food or habitat, and if these disappear, the animals will not
survive. Other introduced animals such as cattle, rabbits and deer eat the food
needed by native animals and this has also reduced the numbers (Australian
Endangered Animals, 1999).
In spite of facing these difficulties, the unique environment in Australia has
shown something that Australians are proud of. Meanwhile, the government is
trying every possible means to resolve environmental problems.
Australia is one of the world’s oldest landmasses and has been populated by
human beings for an estimated 60,000 years. This old continent contains the
world ’ s most ancient flowering plants and is among the world ’ s most
bio-diverse ecosystems. The importance of the natural environment tells
people how the spirit of the land has infused the national character of
Australian people（Xiao Yuehe & Li Youwen，2008：3）.
New words
geology
span
n.
地质学
v.
Oceania
横跨
n.
大洋洲
adjoin
v.
邻接
border
v.
接近
21
landmass
n.
大
陆
plateau
n.
basin
高原
n.
盆地
sedimentary
steep
a.
a.
陡峭的
escarpment
slope
n.
悬崖
n.
斜坡
waterfall
strip
n.
瀑布
n.
条，带
substantial
barren
a.
坚固的
a.
sparsely
贫瘠的
ad.
稀少地
a.
都市化的
urbanized
estuary
n.
penetrate
the Nile
interlace
河口
v.
渗透
n.
尼罗河
v.
reverse
a.
tropical
a.
arid
沉积的
交错
相反的
热带的
a.
expanse
干旱的
n.
宽阔的地
22
区
temperate
a.
territory
气候温和的
n.
行政区，地域
ecosystem
n.
生态系
统
bauxite
ore
n.
n.
矿石
copper
tin
矾土
n.
铜
n.
锡
uranium
n.
nickel
n.
tungsten
zinc
harsh
铀
镍
n.
钨
n.
锌
a.
vegetation
粗糙的
n.
植被
scrub
n.
灌木丛
dense
a.
密集的
eucalyptus
mallee
n.
桉书
n.
（澳大利亚南部生长的）小桉树
plain
n.
平原
flora
n.
植物群
heath
n.
石南树
23
wattle
n.
（澳大利亚）合金欢树
rainforest
fauna
n.
雨林
n.
动物群
mammal
n.
哺乳动
物
marsupial
n.
monotreme
有袋动物
n.
单孔类动
物
kangaroo
koala
n.
袋鼠
n.
树熊
herbivorous
a.
食草的
platypus
n.
鸭嘴兽
echidna
n.
针鼹
watercourse
exotic
n.
水道
a.
endemic
外来的
a.
地方
的
reptile
n.
爬虫动物
amphibian
property
n.
两栖动物
n.
assessment
财产
n.
评
估
24
fragile
a.
脆弱的
biodiversity
pose
n.
v.
造成
susceptible
emission
arable
生物多样性
a.
易受影响的
n.
散发
a.
extraction
可耕种的
n.
habitat
n.
cactus
n.
ornamental
reproduction
抽出
栖息地
仙人掌
a.
观赏性的
n.
繁殖
extinct
a.
灭绝的
infuse
v.
灌输
Exercises
1. Explain terms.
(1) Uluru (Ayers Rock)
(3) the Great Barrier Reef
(5) Lake Eyre
(2) the Great Dividing Ranging
(4) the Murray-Darling Basin
(6) Kangaroo
2. Answer questions.
(1) What is the geographical structure of Australia?
25
(2) What kind of climate does Australia have?
(3) What are the most common native plants and animals in Australia?
(4) What environment challenges Australia is facing now?
3. Questions for further consideration.
(1) What are the factors and causes that affect Australia’s climate?
(2) Why do Australian people prefer to live in a coastal city or town?
(3) What aspects of Australia’s location, landforms and climate have aided the
development of tourism in Australia?
(4) How is the natural environment of Australia different from that of Asian
countries?
1.2 Reading passage: Australian lungfish, Neocreatodus Forsteri, threatened
by a new dam by Angela Arthington ①
(① Angela Arthington: Professor of
Australian Rivers Institute, Faculty of
Environmental Science, Griffith University, Brisbane, Australia. “Australian
lungfish, Neocreatodus Forsteri, threatened by a new dam” by Angela
Arthington. 2009. Environmental Biology of Fishes [J]. Berlin: Springer-Verlag.
pp.84: 211-221)
Introduction
Neocreatodus forsteri (1), commonly called the Australian or Queensland
26
lungfish, has attracted tremendous scientific interest. Fossil records indicate
that the range of N. forsteri extended to the centre of the Australian continent
prior to the Pleistocene (2) but today the Australian lungfish occurs naturally
only in the Burnett and Mary Rivers (3) in south-east Queensland, and as
several self-sustaining populations descended from translocations of Burnett
and Mary River stocks in the 1890s. Rivers supporting the lungfish have been
modified and degraded by land clearing, forestry, grazing, agriculture,
horticulture, loss and fragmentation of riparian corridors, bank erosion, gravel
and sand extraction, channelization, urbanization, spread of alien plants and
fish, and by river impoundment and regulation of river flows. Consequently N.
forsteri is considered to be threatened throughout most of its range and has
been listed as “vulnerable” under Australian Commonwealth legislation (4).
This listing is intended to protect the lungfish from further disturbance of its
natural habitats and to foster recovery actions. Yet a new threat lies ahead for
Mary River populations in the form of a large dam on the main channel—the
proposed Traveston Crossing Dam (5). This article is focused on the potential
impacts of the new dam on lungfish populations in the Mary River and
implications for the conservation of N. forsteri.
Conservation status of the lungfish
Neocreatodus forsteri is a sacred fish of the Gubbi Gubbi Aboriginal people (6)
living in the Mary River catchment who call the lungfish ‘Dala’ and have
revered and protected it from harm for thousands of years. It has been fully
27
protected by the Queensland Fish and Oyster Act (7) since 1914 and was
placed on the CITES list (8) in 1977. Fishing for lungfish is prohibited and
collection for educational or research purposes requires a permit from the
State of Queensland under the Fisheries Act 1994 (9). The lungfish was
formally listed as a Vulnerable species under the Environment Protection and
Biodiversity Conservation Act 1999 (Cth; EPBC Act) in 2003 (10). This
designation means that any action or activity likely to have a significant impact
on important populations of the lungfish must be referred to the
Commonwealth Department of the Environment, Water, Heritage and the Arts
(DEWHA) (11) for permission to proceed or not, or to proceed under specified
conditions.
The most recent development action that may threaten the lungfish within its
natural range is the proposed Traveston Crossing Dam (12) on the main
channel of the Mary River about 27 km upstream from the town of Gympie (13).
Traveston Crossing Dam is intended to help secure water supplies for the
south-east corner of Queensland, where rapid population growth, prolonged
drought and climate change are creating severe water shortages and citizens
are demanding solutions.
Members of the local, regional and national community are deeply anxious
about Traveston Crossing Dam and its environmental and social impacts on
28
the Mary River and regional ecosystems. A special petition established in late
2006 by Professor Jean Joss (14) from Macquarie University has gathered
over 7,600 signatures and numerous individual expressions of concern In her
introduction to the petition Joss (2007) says:—
“The significance of the Australian lungfish cannot be overstated. As a
living fossil it provides the only opportunity to study the development and
physiology of the aquatic predecessors of all land vertebrates, including
ourselves. Australia is the custodian of this invaluable information source
for the rest of the world. The answer to Queensland’s water problem lies in
education on water use and smart new technologies, not in damming a
fragile coastal river system and will fully extinguishing a uniquely
important animal”.
Helen Pearson (2006) (15) writing for Nature echoes these comments:—
“Like all primitive fishes it has a lung, as well as gills. The immediate (but
not very close) relatives of the lungfish include the coelacanth as well as
the ancestors of all land-living vertebrates. This makes the lungfishes ‘living
fossils’ of great value in studying the biology of the earliest ancestors of
land animals. Studying the species may provide a unique insight into how
our own vertebrate ancestors made the journey from water to land”.
Potential impacts of Traveston Crossing Dam
29
If Traveston Crossing Dam is permitted to proceed, it is very likely that it will
cause significant harm to important populations of the Australian lungfish in the
Mary River.
The natural geographic range of the lungfish is limited to the Burnett River (420
km from source to sea) and the Mary River (307 km from source to sea) with
the Mary supporting the most southern natural populations and the Burnett
River being the northern limit of the natural range. The lungfish cannot live in
saline water nor migrate through seawater, making the separation of the two
present-day catchments and populations of N. forsteri absolute. The Mary
River therefore supports an independent breeding population of N. forsteri,
and is recommended conservation to protect the total genome. These
considerations (distribution limits, contribution to breeding stocks and
protection of genetic diversity) establish that lungfish populations in the Mary
River are important for the species’ long-term survival and recovery.
An Environmental Impact Statement (EIS) (16) has been completed for the
Traveston Crossing Dam (SKM 2007) and is currently being evaluated by
DEWHA for the evidence it presents concerning likely significant impacts on
important populations of the lungfish and other threatened species and
ecosystems. Many make the case that Traveston Crossing Dam is very likely
to have significant impacts on lungfish populations in the Mary River. A
significant impact under the EPBC Act may involve any or all of the issues
discussed below.
30
1. The dam will have adverse effects on lungfish habitat
Lungfish occur and are common in the Mary River main channel from the tidal
barrage to the town of Conondale (17). Adult lungfish are usually found in
flowing stream and river reaches with overhanging riparian vegetation along
the banks, woody debris in the water and dense macrophyte beds. The
impounded area will inundate 36.5 km (about 22%) of this type of habitat along
the Mary River main channel upstream from Gympie, and will also extend into
lungfish territory in several of the tributaries named above. Resting, feeding,
spawning and juvenile habitats in the main channel will all go under water to an
average depth of about 5 m. Although impoundments can provide habitat and
feeding grounds for mature lungfish, far more fish have been captured in the
headwater sections of ponded areas where there are shallow waters and more
complex habitat structures than in deeper impounded areas.
When Traveston Dam fills the impounded water will not only inundate
preferred main channel and tributary habitat for lungfish but will also spill out of
the main channel to flood surrounding low lying terrain and create a number of
shallow bays. Areas of still, shallow, nutrient rich water are likely to be
colonized by aquatic vegetation. There is concern that alien weedy species
already present in the Mary catchment will become established and spread in
the Traveston impoundment and interfere with the development of natural
vegetation stands preferred by lungfish.
31
2. The construction of Traveston Dam and inundation of core breeding habitat
will disrupt the breeding cycle of the lungfish
Lungfish spawning requirements
Neocreatodus forsteri is very selective in the choice of spawning site. Highest
densities of early stage embryos are typically associated with intermediate flow
velocities (0.2 m•s-1), low turbidity, a broad range of temperatures (maximum
36°C.), high dissolved oxygen levels, depths of 40- 60 cm and moderate to
high densities of aquatic macrophytes 16-35 cm in height. Occasionally the
lungfish spawns amongst the submerged roots of riparian trees. Structurally
complex plant species with complex branching growth forms or leaf whorls
contain higher densities of fertilized eggs than those of simpler growth form.
Brooks (18) observed that a rapid reduction in water level (25 cm) in Bingera
Weir (19) on the lower Burnett River exposed many shallow spawning areas
and caused the death of a large number of fertilized eggs.
Information on spawning behavior in the Mary River is very limited. Suitable
macrophyte beds were rare in the Mary River between 1999 and 2002 as a
consequence of a record high flow event in 1999 that scoured river banks.
Main channel spawning habitats along the Mary River will be inundated
upstream from Traveston Crossing Dam and into tributaries. Shallow
inundated embayments with or without aquatic and riparian vegetation, little
water movement and large expanses of open water may present very limited
32
options for lungfish spawning.
Juvenile recruitment
Dense beds and banks of vegetation provide suitable microhabitat for
developing lungfish embryos and newly hatched lungfish, where they feed on
small invertebrates such as microcrustaceans, molluscs and worms.
Impoundments with steep profiles and fluctuating water levels typically do not
provide suitable nursery habitat and food resources for very young fish and
juveniles (<30 cm) which rely on dense macrophyte beds in very shallow water
for many months or years after hatching, until they move into deeper water.
Growth and longevity
Wild lungfish from the Burnett River may live for 50 years, with some evidence
that lungfish can live up to 80-100 years in captivity (20). Lungfish begin to
breed at around 15-17 years of age in males and 20-22 years in the wild.
Johnson (2001) (21) remarked that for a long-lived species with naturally low
mortality rates, successful spawning and juvenile recruitment are not essential
every year, and may only occur irregularly, possibly in medium to long-term
cycles (22), even in natural systems. Such long cycles could easily mask low
juvenile recruitment for many years whereas large adults could remain
common and the mature populations appear viable for decades without there
being any indication of incipient population decline. Recovery from gradual
population decline or catastrophic mortality is likely to be very slow.
33
Movement
Although generally described as sedentary, the lungfish moves various
distances away from its home range. In flowing sections of the Burnett and
Mary rivers adults usually move around one or two pools at night and return
each day to a certain resting retreat such as a submerged log, rock or patch of
macrophytes. Individual fish may show high fidelity to the same daytime retreat
over many consecutive months, even years.
The movements of lungfish are restricted by natural barriers (waterfalls,
gorges and ephemeral river reaches), and by man-made barriers such as
dams (wall height >15 m), weirs (wall height <15 m), tidal barrages and road
culverts. Lungfish sampled downstream from Claude Wharton Weir (23) on the
Burnett River in 2004 were in poorer condition (they were lighter for their length)
than those in other parts of the river. If Traveston Crossing Dam is built it will
sever the main river channel upstream from Gympie and effectively isolate
upstream and downstream populations of lungfish unless effective fish transfer
facilities can be provided. Lungfish can be injured or killed when they pass
over the top of dam walls and tidal barrages during high water flows. In the
lower Burnett River lungfish have been observed stranded downstream of the
tidal barrage, unable to return to freshwater because the fish were too large to
use the vertical slot fishway (24) at this barrage. Stranding and mortality have
34
also been observed below the Mary River tidal barrage and at the spillway (25)
of North Pine Dam after a rapid release of water there.
3. The dam will result in the establishment of harmful invasive species
Large dams like Traveston Crossing Dam will transform a lotic system into a
lentic one by flooding riverine habitats and creating a large artificial lake.
These dramatic changes usually have significant effects on riverine biota and
one of them is to facilitate the establishment and spread of alien species of
plants and fish. There are also concerns that the lungfish could be threatened
by alien and translocated fishes that have been introduced into the Burnett and
Mary catchments. The ubiquitous mosquito fish preys on the eggs and
juveniles of native fishes and competes with small species for food and habitat,
while other alien species may compete for breeding habitat or contribute to the
decline in number of breeding adults. One of the most worrisome alien species,
the Mozambique mouthbrooder or tilapia (26), has been declared a noxious
and threatening alien species in Queensland. It is present in Boondooma Dam
(27)on the Burnett River and could well become established within the natural
range of N. forsteri in that catchment, and be spread to the Mary through
deliberate or accidental human interventions. Oreochromis mossambicus (28)
is already well established in North Pine Dam (29) and other impoundments in
south-east Queensland.
Mitigation options
35
A Water Resource Plan (30) has set environmental flow targets for flora and
fauna (31) at various nodes throughout the catchment. These flow targets is
intended to maintain the habitat, food resources, passage and breeding
requirements of fish and other biota throughout the Mary River. The EIS for
Traveston Crossing Dam asserts that these targets will be achieved by
appropriate water releases from the dam, and that they will maintain lungfish
spawning sites, juvenile habitat and recruitment processes downstream. The
maintenance of adequate low flows will be most important because N. forsteri
is incapable of surviving complete desiccation. The Australian lungfish can
only survive out of water for a few days using the lung, but only if the surface of
the skin is constantly moist. It tends to use the lung for respiration when it is
active and requires more oxygen, usually at night while foraging, when
swimming in floodwaters and when spawning.
The EIS promises that fish bypass facilities will be provided at Traveston
Crossing Dam similar to those at Burnett Dam on the Burnett River, i.e. a
‘state-of-the-art’ (32) fish lift to enable upstream movement past the dam wall.
The Burnett Dam fish lift is already operating and successfully transferring a
range of fish species upstream, however the number of lungfish that entered
the downstream lock (33) and exited upstream on one monitoring occasion
was very low, only partially compliant with (34) Commonwealth requirements
under the EPBC Act. As well as the installation of fish transfer facilities to
36
enable movements upstream and downstream into suitable living and breeding
habitats, consideration will be given to the translocation of N. forsteri
individuals and/or juveniles reared from broodstock into areas of the Mary
catchment where natural and man-made barriers limit or prevent access to
potentially suitable habitat. Population enhancement based on the release of
fish bred in captivity does not necessarily guarantee beneficial outcomes for
endangered fishes, mainly because of the genetic bottlenecks associated with
small population size.
Conclusions
Neoceratodus forsteri has already been listed as a vulnerable species under
the Commonwealth EPBC Act and is the subject of a Recovery Plan (35) that
will guide management actions and permissible activities in and around
lungfish habitats. A first principle of recovery planning is to protect existing
habitats and to maintain or restore landscape and local processes that
generate and maintain habitat structure. Traveston Crossing Dam will
inevitably interfere substantially with such recovery actions for the lungfish. It
will destroy and fragment essential larval, juvenile and adult habitats along the
main channel of the Mary River and several tributaries, and while the new
lacustrine habitats created will probably support mature lungfish they appear
unlikely to be suitable for lungfish spawning and for juvenile recruitment, which
appear to be sporadic and unsustainably low.
37
The Australian lungfish is vulnerable to reduced river flows, dry spells and
complete desiccation. Traveston Crossing Dam will store incoming river flows
and regulate natural patterns of river flow below the dam, with potentially
severe consequences for lungfish if low flow spells become more frequent and
prolonged. Lungfish require very long periods to recover from catastrophic
mortality and population decline as a consequence of their slow growth rate,
long generation time and the high vulnerability of larval and juvenile lungfish.
Even though sophisticated fish transfer facilities are proposed to allow
upstream and downstream movements of lungfish in the Mary catchment there
is no guarantee that the fish lift and sluice will be effective enough to maintain
the original levels of population connectivity and genetic mixing. The ecological
and genetic consequences of population fragmentation and isolation could be
significant for a species of such low genetic diversity and high extinction risk.
N. forsteri is not genetically diverse, a feature shared with other endangered
species and often associated with population declines and high extinction risk.
Low genetic diversity implies low potential for evolutionary adaptation to
changing and new environmental conditions, while the low recruitment of
juvenile lungfish, their slow growth and long generation times will severely limit
the species’ capacity to adapt rapidly to sudden changes in environmental
conditions associated with the new dam.
In conclusion, building a large storage reservoir on the main channel of the
38
upper Mary River appears highly likely to risk significant decline and
fragmentation of important natural populations of the Australian lungfish. This
risk seems far too high for a species already declared vulnerable and urgently
in need of recovery in its remaining natural habitats.
Notes
(1) Neoceratodus forsteri: the sole surviving member of the family
Ceratodontidae(角齿肺鱼科) and order Ceratodontiformes.
(2) the Pleistocene: [地] 更新世, 洪积世。
(3) the Burnett and Mary Rivers: rivers that the Australian Lungfish
occurs
naturally.
(4) Australian Commonwealth legislation: Commonwealth Law.
(5) Traveston Crossing Dam: a proposed water project that was initiated by the
government of Queensland, Australia, in 2006.
(6) the Gubbi Gubbi Aboriginal people: from South East Queensland Australia
and one of the many Aboriginal people groups.
(7) the Queensland Fish and Oyster Act: the Protection for lungfish, under a
State Government law, The Fish and Oyster Act of 1914, was initiated by
Bancroft, who was the first to realize that lungfish could be at risk if their
environment was damaged.
(8) the CITES list: the Convention on International Trade in Endangered
Species of Wild Fauna and Flora, which is an international agreement
39
between governments, drafted as a result of a resolution adopted in 1963
at a meeting of members of the International Union for Conservation of
Nature.
(9) the Fisheries Act 1994: a range of protected freshwater and saltwater fish
species, including the Queensland lungfish.
(10) the Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act 1999 (Cth;
EPBC Act) in 2003: An Act relating to the protection of the
environment
and the conservation of biodiversity, and for related purposes.
(11) the Commonwealth Department of the Environment, Water, Heritage and
the Arts (DEWHA): national policy, programs and legislation to protect
and conserve Australia's environment and heritage.
(12) Traveston Crossing Dam: a proposed water project that was initiated by
the government of Queensland, in 2006 as a result of a prolonged
drought situation.
(13) Gympie is an old gold mining town situated along the Bruce Highway on
the Fraser Coast.
(14) Jean Joss: a biological scientist at Macquarie University.
(15) Helen Pearson edits biology features for the magazine and writes on all
aspects of biomedical science in New York.
(16) an Environmental Impact Statement (EIS): the policies which indicate
ecological data collected for an EIS should be public property in the sense
that no party can prevent another from making it public.
40
(17) Conondale: an extensive area of forests in the unspoiled forests and an
important area, protecting the habitats of many rare and threatened
animals in Queensland.
(18) Brooks (Steven G. Brooks): the Executive Director and Project Manager
for the Florida Center for Prevention Research in the Institute of Science
and Public Affairs at Florida State University.
(19) Bingera Weir: one part of the Bundaberg Irrigation Scheme located in
southeast Queensland.
(20) in captivity: animals that live under human care are in captivity.
(21) Johnson (Jeff W.Johnson): Manager Ichthyology in Queensland Museum.
(22) in medium to long-term cycles: from intermediate to long-term cycles.
(23) The Claude Wharton Weir, situated at Gayndah:
a waterway large
enough to explore fish with a small open aluminium boat.
(24) slot fishway: a narrow opening of the fish ladder for fishes' natural
migration.
(25) spillway: 溢洪道;泄洪道。
(26) the Mozambique mouthbrooder or tilapia:莫桑比克口孵非鲫或者罗非鱼。
(27) Boondooma Dam: a dam on the Boyne River in the South Burnett region
of Queensland.
(28) Oreochromis mossambicus: 莫桑比克罗非鱼。
(29) North Pine Dam: built across the North Pine River, north-west of Brisbane
in Queensland.
41
(30) a Water Resource Plan: a plan for the management of a water resource
issued in 30 Sept 2010.
(31) flora and fauna: usually explained in biological terms to include the genus
and species of plant and animal.
(32) state-of-the-art: the highest level.
(33) the downstream lock:下游管线。
(34) compliant with: yield to authority without protest.
(35) a Recovery Plan contains six threatened species of marine turtle to be
protected
under
the
Environment
Protection
and
Biodiversity
Conservation Act 1999 (EPBC Act).
New words
translocation
stock
移动
n.
河干
degrade
graze
n.
v.
退化
v.
放牧
horticulture
n.
fragmentation
园艺业
n.
碎片
riparian
a.
河边的，河岸的
erosion
n.
侵蚀
gravel
n.
extraction
砂砾
n.
抽出
42
urbanization
n.
impoundment
城市化
n.
围于水坝中的
水
vulnerable
foster
a.
易受伤害的；易受攻击的
v.
养育，抚育
catchment
n.
designation
proceed
集水处(水库或集水盆地)
n.
指示
v.
upstream
继续进行
ad.
向上游；逆流地
secure
v.
保护
petition
n.
请愿；请求
overstate
v.
physiology
aquatic
夸大叙述
n.
生理学
a.
水生的
predecessor
n.
前辈
vertebrate
n.
脊椎动物
custodian
n.
监护人；保管人
fragile
a.
extinguish
gill
v.
压制
n.
腮
coelacanth
saline
脆的；易碎的
n.
矛尾鱼; 空棘亚目科
a.
盐的
43
genome
n.
基因
组
genetic
a.
adverse
tidal
遗传的；起源的
a.
不利的；相反的
a.
潮的
barrage
n.
overhang
v.
vegetation
debris
拦河坝
悬于…之上；（危险、邪恶等）逼近
n.
植被
n.
碎片
macrophyte
n.
inundate
n.
tributary
n.
spawn
大型植物
泛滥；淹没
支流
v.
产
卵
juvenile
a.
青少年的
ponded
a.
筑成池
a.
浅的
塘
shallow
spill
v.
terrain
bay
disrupt
溢出，流出
n.
地形
n.
海湾
v.
破坏
44
embryo
n.
胚
胎
velocity
n.
速率；迅速
dissolve
v.
溶解；消失
moderate
clump
a.
n.
丛
terrestrial
whorl
适度的
a.
陆地的
n.
螺纹
predominantly
scour
支配地；主要地
v.
冲刷
embayment
option
ad.
n.
海湾，海沟伸入陆地的深水湾
n.
选择权
recruitment
n.
新生代；补充
invertebrate
n.
无脊椎动物
microhabitat
n.
mollusk
n.
worm
n.
steep
a.
profile
n.
curve
n.
mortality
viable
(动、植物的)微(小)环境(如粪块、腐烂的根等)
软体动物
蠕虫
陡峭的
外形；剖面
曲线
n.
死亡数
a.
能养活的；能生育的
45
incipient
a.
起初的
catastrophic
a.
sedentary
retreat
log
灾难的
a.
定栖的
n.
休息寓所
n.
patch
园木
n.
fidelity
斑点；碎片
n.
真相，真实性
consecutive
barrier
a.
连续不断的
n.
gorge
障碍物
n.
峡谷
ephemeral
culvert
a.
短暂的
n.
weir
暗渠
n.
堰，坝
downstream
adv.
下游地,顺流而
下
sever
v.
stranded
vertical
slot
断绝；分开
a.
搁浅的
a.
垂直的
n.
狭槽；水沟
fishway
n.
(使鱼得上瀑布或堤堰之)鱼道
spillway
n.
溢水口,溢洪道
invasive
a.
攻击性的
46
lotic
a.
lentic
生活于流水中的
a.
生活于静水中的
riverine
a.
biota
在河岸上的
n.
生物区
ubiquitous
prey
a.
普遍存在的
v.
tilapia
捕食
n.
罗非鱼
deliberate
a.
故意的
mitigation
n.
减轻；缓和
node
n.
节点
desiccation
n.
respiration
forage
n.
呼吸
v.
搜寻
bypass
n.
partially
ad.
rear
干燥
旁路,支路
部分地
v.
跳出
broodstock
n.
bottleneck
n.
substantially
larval
障碍物
ad.
实质上；大体上
a.
lacustrine
sporadic
蟹类亲本培育
幼虫的
a.
湖泊的
a.
零星的；分散的
47
spell
sluice
n.
一段时间
n.
extinction
水闸
n.
消失
Exercises
1. Make True or False judgments.
(1) Sophisticated fish transfer facilities have been proposed to allow upstream
and downstream movements of lungfish so that we can maintain the
original levels of population and genetic mixing.
(2) The Australian lungfish can survive out of water for quite a few days,
because it can breathe with a lung as we human beings do.
(3) The shallow bays which are created by the spilt impounded water are not in
favor of the survival of Australian lungfish.
(4) The Burnett River and the Mary River support two independent breeding
populations of N. forsteri, both of which play significant roles in the
species’ long-term survival and recovery.
(5) Australia owns a unique natural geographical condition as a result of eras
of land-sea isolation.
2．Answer questions.
(1) What is the main idea of the paper?
(2) Why is lungfish so significant to Australia?
48
(3) How has the Traveston dam influenced the lungfish population?
49
Chapter 2 The Aborigines and Australian history
2.1 Overview
2.1.1 The earliest Australian history and cultural heritage
The word “Aboriginal” was used in Australia to describe its Indigenous peoples
as early as 1789. It soon became the common name to refer to all Indigenous
Australians.
2.1.1.1 History
Australian Aborigines migrated from Asia more than 60,000 years ago. Though
they comprise 500–600 distinct groups, Aboriginal people possess some
unifying links. They lived as hunter-gatherers when hunting and searching for
50
food from the land. Aboriginal society was semi-nomadic. The mode of life and
material cultures varied greatly from region to region. The greatest population
density was to be found in the southern and eastern regions of the continent,
the River Murray valley in particular. At the time of first European contact, it
has been estimated the absolute minimum pre-1788 population was 315,000,
while recent archaeological finds suggest that a population of 750,000 could
have been sustained ( Waltzman Shapiro, 1979: 51-69).
British colonization of Australia began with the arrival of the First Fleet in
Botany Bay in 1788. An immediate consequence of colonization was a
pandemic of Old World diseases, including smallpox which is estimated to
have killed up to 90% of the local people within the first three years of white
settlement. Smallpox would kill around 50% of Australia's indigenous
population in the early years of British colonization. A second consequence of
British settlement was appropriation of land and water resources, which
continued throughout the 19th and early 20th centuries as rural lands were
converted for sheep and cattle grazing.
Contact
with
British
settlers,
beginning
in
1788,
led
to
economic
marginalization, a loss of political autonomy, and death by disease for many
Aborigines. The so-called ‘pacification by force’ in the late 1880s resulted in a
massive depopulation for Aborigines. By the 1940s almost all Aborigines were
assimilated into rural and urban Australian society as low-paid laborers with
51
limited rights. In addition, many Aboriginal children were taken from their
natural parents by Federal and State Government agencies and church
missions, under acts of their respective Parliaments. The removals occurred
roughly from 1869 to 1969 (Geoffrey Blainey, 1976: 34-54). These children
were called “The Stolen Generation”.
Commonwealth legislation in 1962 specifically gave Aborigines the right to
vote in Commonwealth elections. In the controversial 1971 Gove land rights
case, Justice Blackburn ruled that Australia had been terra nullius before
British settlement, and that no concept of native title existed in Australian law.
Since the 1980s, Indigenous Australians have found increasing acceptance
into mainstream society. In 1976 and 1993 the Australian Government enacted
land-rights legislation that has returned to Aborigines a degree of autonomy. In
1992, the High Court of Australia handed down its decision in the Mabo Case,
declaring the previous legal concept of terra nullius to be invalid. Court
decisions in 1992, 1996, and 2006 have recognized Aboriginal property and
native title rights.
The Australian Aborigines have their own flag which was originally designed as
a protest flag for the land rights movement of Indigenous Australians. The flag
has become a symbol of the Aboriginal people of Australia. On 14 July 1995,
both the Aboriginal flag and the Torres Strait Islander Flag were officially
proclaimed by the Australian government as “Flags of Australia”. The flag is a
52
yellow disc on a horizontally divided field of black and red. The symbolic
meaning of the flag colors are Black: Represents the Aboriginal people of
Australia; Red: Represents the red earth, the red ochre and a spiritual relation
to the land; Yellow: Represents the Sun, the giver of life and protector (Zhang
Xianping, 2007: 217).
A national “Sorry Day” was held on 26th May 1998, a day when all Australians
could express their sorrow for the whole tragic episode and to the Stolen
generation, and celebrate the beginning of a new understanding. The recent
increase in Aboriginal population reflects improved living conditions and a
broad and inclusive definition of Aboriginal identity on the part of the
Government. Their average standard of living and life expectancy, however,
are not comparable with that of most Australians. In 1999 the Australian
Government issued an official expression of regret for past mistreatment of
Aborigines but, concerned that it would encourage claims for compensation,
did not issue the formal national apology sought by Aboriginal leaders.
However on the 13th of February 2008, the Government led by Prime Minister
Kevin Rudd, issued a formal apology to the Indigenous Australians over “The
Stolen Generations”.
2.1.1.2 Languages
The Indigenous languages of mainland Australia and Tasmania have not been
shown to be related to any languages outside Australia. There were more than
53
250 languages spoken by Indigenous Australians prior to the arrival of
Europeans. Most of these are now either extinct, with only about fifteen
languages still being spoken by all age groups.
Linguists classify mainland Australian languages into two distinct groups: the
Pama-Nyungan languages and the non-Pama Nyungan. The Pama-Nyungan
languages comprise the majority, covering most of Australia, and are a family
of related languages. In the north, stretching from the Western Kimberley to
the Gulf of Carpentaria, a number of groups of languages which have not been
shown to be related to the Pama-Nyungan family or to each other have been
uncovered; these are known as the non-Pama-Nyungan languages. While it
has sometimes proven difficult to work out familial relationships within the
Pama-Nyungan language family, many Australian linguists feel there has been
substantial success (Robert Malcolm Ward Dixon, 2002: 57-98).
2.1.1.3 Cultures
(1) The Dreamtime
At the time of European settlement, the Indigenous Australians had their
own religious traditions founded in their concept of the ‘Dreamtime’.
Indigenous Australians have a complex oral tradition and spiritual values
based upon reverence for the land and a belief in the Dreamtime.
They believe that every person ‘exists’ eternally in the Dreaming. The eternal
54
aspect of this belief is that life continues before and after death. The spirit of
the child is culturally understood to enter the developing fetus during the 5th
month of pregnancy. When the mother feels the child move in the womb for the
first time, it was thought that this was the work of the spirit of the land on which
the Mother then stood.
In Australian Aboriginal mythology, the Dreamtime tells the story of things that
happened, how the universe came to be, how human beings were created and
how the Creator intended for humans to function within the cosmos.Fred Alan
Wolf opens “The Dreamtime”, a chapter in his book The Dreaming Universe
(1994), with a quote from The Last Wave (1977), an Australian film directed by
Peter Weir: “Aboriginals believe in two forms of time; two parallel streams of
activity. One is the daily objective activity, the other is an infinite spiritual cycle
called the‘dreamtime', more real than reality itself. Whatever happens in the
dreamtime establishes the values, symbols, and laws of Aboriginal society. It
was believed that some people of unusual spiritual powers had contact with
the dreamtime” (Fred Alan Wolf, 1994: 8-22).
(2) Music
The various Indigenous Australian communities developed unique musical
instruments and folk styles. The didgeridoo, which is widely thought to be a
stereotypical instrument of Aboriginal people, was traditionally played only by
men of the eastern Kimberley region and Arnhem Land. Clapping sticks are
55
probably the more popular musical instrument, especially because they help
maintain rhythm for songs.
Contemporary Australian Aboriginal music is predominantly of the country
music genre. Most Indigenous radio stations – particularly in metropolitan
areas – serve a double purpose as the local country-music station. More
recently, Indigenous Australian musicians have branched into rock and roll, hip
hop and reggae. One of the most well known modern bands is Yothu Yindi
playing in a style which has been called Aboriginal rock.
(3) Art
Australia has a tradition of Aboriginal art which is thousands of years old, the
best known forms being rock art and bark painting. These paintings were
usually created in earthy colors, from paint made from ochre. Such ochres
were also used to paint their bodies for ceremonial purposes. Traditionally,
Aboriginal people have painted stories from their Dreamtime.
Modern Aboriginal artists continue this fine tradition, using modern materials in
their artworks. Aboriginal art is the most internationally recognizable form of
Australian art. Several styles of Aboriginal art have developed in modern times,
including the watercolour paintings of Albert Namatjira; the Hermannsburg
School, and the acrylic Papunya Tula “dot art” movement (John Flood, 1997:
45-89).
56
2.1.1.4 Indigenous literature
Aboriginal literature in Australia existed long ago but only in oral form. Written
literature did not appear until the publishing of Native Legends by David
Unaipon, also called “the Father of Aboriginal literature”. However, due to the
limitation in education, economic and social status, as well as their living
environment, Aboriginal literature did not become prosperous until the 1960s,
when the first group of Aboriginal writers, such as Kath Walker (1920—1993),
Cloin Johnson (1848-1904) and Kevin Gilbert (1933 - 1993), published works.
Kath Walker is famous for his We Are Going (1964); Mary Gilmore Medal
(1970); and the Jessie Litchfield Award (1975). Cloin Johnson’s works include
Wild Cat Falling (1965); Doctor Wooreddy’s Prescription for Enduring the
Ending of the World (1983); Doin Wildcat (1988); and Wildcat Screaming
(1992). Kevin Gilbert is a 20th century Indigenous Australian activist, artist,
poet, playwright and printmaker. He is also a past winner of the National Book
Council prize for writers. His most famous book is Living Black: Blacks Talk to
Kevin Gilbert (1978) (Sylvia Kleinert and William Neale, 2000: 23-56).
2.1.1.5 Indigenous education
Education is generally regarded as a key factor in improving outcomes for
Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people. Improved health and
socio-economic status are directly linked to educational participation
57
and achievement.
A number of issues affect participation in education for Aboriginal and
Torres Strait Islander peoples, such as access to educational
institutions, financial constraints, and community expectations. While
targeted programs aim to improve outcomes in some educational areas,
Indigenous students continue to engage in education and training at lower
rates of participation and achieve lower levels of educational attainment
than other Australian nationals (Zhang Xianping，2007：116).
New words
migrate
v.
comprise
distinct
移居
v.
包含
a.
unifying
明显的；独特的
a.
nomadic
使统一的
a.
游牧
的
mode
n.
density
方式
n.
密度
archaeological
pandemic
a.
考古学上的
a.
全国流行
的
58
smallpox
n.
天花
appropriation
convert
n.
挪用
v.
转变
marginalization
autonomy
n.
边缘化
n.
自
治
pacification
n.
和解
massive
a.
大量的
mission
n.
使命
legislation
n.
controversial
a.
terra nullius
enact
n.
(拉)不属于任何人的土地
颁布
a.
无效的
horizontally
proclaim
ad.
水平地
v.
公布
n.
episode
赭色
n.
一段情节；插曲
compensation
stretch
n.
补偿
v.
reverence
fetus
有争议的
v.
invalid
ochre
立法
伸展
n.
尊严；崇敬
n.
胎儿
59
womb
n.
子
宫
mythology
n.
cosmos
神话
n.
宇
宙
infinite
a.
无限的
didgeridoo
n.
迪吉里杜管（澳大利亚土著使用的一种乐器）
stereotypical
a.
metropolitan
a.
hip
大都市的
n.
hop
臀部
n.
跳跃
reggae
bark
老一套的, 陈规的
n.
瑞格舞（西印度群岛的一种舞蹈及舞曲）
n.
树皮
ceremonial
a.
礼仪的
watercolour
n.
水彩画
acrylic
a.
[化]丙烯酸的
prescription
n.
printmaker
outcome
惯例；指示
n.
版画复制匠
n.
结
果
constraint
n.
约束,强制
60
Exercises
1. Explain terms.
(1) the Stolen Generation
(3) the National “Sorry Day”
(2) the Mabo Case
(4) the Australian Aboriginal Flag
(5) Dreamtime
(6) the Aboriginal literature
(7) Indigenous education
2. Answer questions.
(1) What is the significance of the land to Aboriginal people?
(2) What is the impact of colonization on the indigenous people?
(3) How has the history of Australia excluded Aboriginal people?
3. Questions for further consideration.
(1) What were the patterns of Indigenous settlement of the land?
(2) How has history addressed the theme of Aboriginal resistance?
(3) How is the Aboriginal culture linked to Aboriginal politics?
(4) How have the issues of land rights and native title challenged “national
belonging”?
2.1.2 From British colony to an independent nation
Australia is one of the world’s oldest landmasses and has been populated for
an estimated 60 000 years. Before the arrival of European settlers, Aboriginal
61
and Torres Strait Islander peoples inhabited most areas of the continent.
Australia’s contemporary history is relatively short, with the first European
settlement established by England on 26 January 1788.On 1 January 1901,
the six colonies became a federation, and the Commonwealth of Australia
formed. Since the federation, Australia has maintained a stable， liberal，
democratic political system and remains a Commonwealth country.
2.1.2.1 Discovery of Australia
Europeans in the 15th and 16th century stressed the value of global discovery
by learning more about the Earth, and in collecting unusual flora and fauna
from around the world. Driven by this interest and motivation, Portugal and
Spain first made efforts to land on Terra Australis, but failed for some reasons.
The Dutch in the 1600s arrived at the Western Australian coast. Maps from this
period and the early 18th century often have Australia marked as “New
Holland” on account of the voyages of these Dutch explorers.
In the late 17th century the English launched several expeditions to Australia.
In 1768, Captain James Cook landed at Botany Bay on the eastern coast, and
mapped each place as he went. In 1770, he raised the British Flag and
claimed eastern New Holland in the name of New South Wales. Captain Cook
discovered Australia in 1770. It is his discoveries that would lead to the British
settlement of Australia.
62
From
1802-1803,
Englishmen
Matthew
Flinders
and
George
Bass
circumnavigated the Australian continent and proved that New Holland, New
South Wales and Botany Bay were not separate islands, but parts of a single
continent. They did not think it proper to name the continent with names of two
countries and suggested another name for this ancient landmass—Australia
(Stuart Macintyre, 2008: 5-15).
2.1.2.2 The Colonial Time （1788-1901）
Before 1775, Britain transported convicts into the American colony, but
America declared its independence in 1776, this made it necessary for Britain
possible to send convicts to Australia. The word convicts, therefore, became
the major theme and the beginning of early Australian history. In 1787, Captain
Arthur Phillip was appointed governor of New South Wales. He led the First
Fleet to set off for Botany Bay to establish a penal settlement in Australia. The
First Fleet of 11 ships carrying about 1500 people, half of them convicts,
arrived in Sydney Harbor on 26 January 1788, and it is on this day every year
that Australia Day is celebrated.
During the late 18th and 19th centuries, large numbers of convicts were
transported to the various Australian penal colonies. For 80 years more than
165,000 convicts were transported to Australia. The transportation of convicts
63
ended in 1868.
The economic mainstay in the Australian convict settlements was the sheep
industry. In 1790, the Englishman John MacArthur first imported flocks of
merino sheep to Australia and spread them out across the Western Plains
from the settlement of Sydney. As a result, the colonial economy of sheep
expanded rapidly. Landowners near Sydney broke into Aboriginal domains
and occupied their lands. They, as sheep men, were also called squatters
because they “ squatted ” on Aboriginal lands. Finally they became the
“landed gentry” of Australia, and their wealth made them the most powerful
economic faction of the population (Zhang Xianping，2007：25).
2.1.2.3 The gold rush (1851-1855)
In 1851, gold was discovered near Bathurst, New South Wales, marking the
beginning of the Gold Rush.The gold rush brought many immigrants from
Great Britain, Ireland, Europe, North America and China. The gold rush
stimulated economic activities in all the south eastern colonies. The years
following the gold rush were prosperous: mining companies were making large
profits, irrigation systems opened previously infertile areas of land, and
overseas markets were being found for agricultural products. The 1851 gold
rush attracted a flood of immigration and laid the basis for self-sustaining
economic growth.
64
The term“Mateship” that developed between diggers on the goldfields is still
integral to how Australians perceive themselves as Australians. The diggers'
open disdain of authority during this time is still a dominant theme in any
discussion of Australian history and national identity.
The gold rush of the nineteenth century and the lives of those who worked the
goldfields - the 'diggers' - are etched into Australian national folklore. There is
no doubt that the gold rush had a huge effect on the Australian economy and
the development as a nation.
2.1.2.4 The formation of the Federation （1900-1914）
Economic development and favourable conditions hastened the process of the
formation of the Federation. There were three main reasons for the idea of
‘being a nation’as follows.
First, a gold rush was highly significant to Australia’s economic development
and growth of population. In 1852 alone, 370,000 immigrants arrived in
Australia and the economy of the nation boomed. The colonies were strong
enough in economy to get rid of Britain’s control and become independent.
Secondly, in 1870, Australia was faced with Germany and France’s military
threat in New Guinea and New Caledonia. The Australian colonies recognized
65
the value of establishing, a collective national defense.
Lastly, before the federation, the six colonies were self-governing. They had no
relations with each other and functioned more or less like separate countries.
Other newly-established federation, such as the United States, Canada and
Switzerland inspired the Australian colonies to follow suit.
All these factors laid a foundation for the formation of a federation. On the road
to the federation, an important leader, Henry Parker, called ‘the Father of the
Federation’ by Australian people, was five times the Premier of New South
Wales and devoted a lifetime in the forefront of the Federation movement. In
1891, his speech ‘One People, One Flag, One Destiny’ affected thousands of
federalists.
In 1885, the Federal Council of Australasia was formed, and then the Council
held the two conferences respectively in 1890 and 1891. In the early 1890s
two meetings established the need for a federation and set the framework. An
informal meeting attended by official representatives from the Australasian
colonies was held in Melbourne in 1890. The conference debated whether the
time was ripe to proceed with a federation and how to structure it. This led to
the first National Australasian Convention, which was in Sydney in 1891. In
this convention, the first draft of the Australian Constitution was written and
66
adopted.
However, the idea of ‘being a nation’ was not even popular at that time.
Referendums were held in June 1898, and it got no approved. In June 1899
the second referendums were held again, and in 1900, the vote of referendum
was yes in all six colonies.
The Commonwealth of Australia Constitution Act was passed on June 5, 1900
and was signed by Queen Victoria on July 9, 1900. The birth of the
‘Commonwealth of Australia’ was formally proclaimed on January 1, 1901.
From Henry Parker’s 1891 speech ‘One People, One Flag, One Destiny’to the
day of the formation of the federation, over ten years had passed. Australia as
a new nation was born (Phillip Knightley, 2000: 50-57).
2.1.2.5 Australia in the two world wars (1914-1945)
(1) Australia in World War I （1914--1919）
Australia became a newly-established nation and desired to enter the
international stage as an independent country. When the First World War
started, Australia got involved in the war for the several reasons.
First, although Australia was known as an independent nation, they still held
close ties to the “mother country”, Britain. Most thought of themselves as
67
'Australasian Britons', bound to Britain and a proud junior partner in the empire.
98% of Australia’s population was of British descent. Therefore, most felt
dedicated towards the empire.
Secondly, if Australia became involved in the war, other countries would have
a greater respect for the new nation. Australians had the dual loyalty: one is for
the new-born nation and the other is its mother country.
Thirdly, at the time, Andrew Fisher, as the fifth Prime Minister, promised that
Australia would stand behind their mother country. He believed this war to be a
noble cause where Australians could demonstrate their loyalty.
Lastly, Australian enlisted soldiers wanted to achieve their motives: to serve
the King and Empire, to have an adventure, to see the world, and to do the
right thing.
In September 1914, the Australian Imperial Force (AIF: all-volunteer Australian
Army forces) formed. Its first members sailed for the war, following Britain's
declaration of war on Germany. The 1st AIF was a purely volunteer force for
the duration of the war. A total of 331,814 Australians were sent overseas to
serve as part of the AIF, which represented 13% of the white male population.
As a volunteer force, all units were demobilized at the end of the war.
68
The Battle of Gallipoli against the Turks in 1915 was a typical campaign in the
time of the First World War. Because of the failure in strategies of the British
military officers, Australian and New Zealand Army Corps (ANZAC) were
defeated, but this campaign became a “founding myth” for both Australia and
New Zealand. The failure of the Gallipoli battle stimulated the growth of a
self-conscious Australian nationalism. Before the First World War, when
introducing himself to foreigners, people in Victoria or New South Wales said,
“I am a Victorian or New South Wales.” After the First World War, when
introducing himself to foreigners, people in Victoria or New South Wales
replied, “I am an Australian”. Though Australia as an independent nation was
established for more than ten years, Australians before the First World War
possessed a weak sense of national identity. The First World War awoke the
awareness of Australian nationalism. Anzac Day is still commemorated as a
National public holiday in both countries, and is considered one of the most
spiritual days of the year in Australia (Zhao Jialian and Fang Ailun, 2004:
27-28).
The years after the First World War, Australia suffered the Great Depression
(1929-1933). With its extreme dependence on exports, particularly primary
products such as wool and wheat, Australia was thought to have been one of
the hardest-hit countries in the Western world. The depression made the
economy near the lowest position, increasing public and private debts at a time
of massive unemployment.
69
(2) Australia in World War II （1939--1945）
Australia fought two wars between 1939 and 1945: one against Germany and
Italy as part of the British Commonwealth's war effort and the other against
Japan in alliance with the United States and Britain.
World War II contributed to major changes in Australia's economy, military and
foreign policy. The war accelerated the process of industrialization, led to the
development of a larger peacetime military and began the process with which
Australia shifted the focus of its foreign policy to supporting the United States
rather than Britain (Wang Zhijin, 2004: 57).
2.1.2.6 Post-war prosperity
After 1945 Australia entered a boom period. Hundreds of thousands of
refugees and migrants arrived in Australia to embrace their new lives. The
number of Australians employed in the manufacturing industry had grown
steadily. The economy developed strongly in the 1950s with major
nation-building projects such as the Snowy Mountains
Scheme, a
hydro-electric power scheme located in Australia’s south-east mountain region.
Other developments included the expansion of government social security
programs and the arrival of television. Melbourne hosted the Olympic Games
of 1956, shining the international spotlight on Australia.
By participating in the two world wars, Australia entered the international stage
70
as an independent nation. The post-war prosperity brought about economic
progress in almost every aspect of the society. This signaled the nation coming
to its maturity.
New words
convict
n.
theme
n.
罪犯
主
题
penal
a.
刑罚的
merino
n.
美利奴羊
domain
n.
领域
squatter
n.
gentry
n.
faction
n.
未经允许即住下来的人；新开垦地的定居者
贵族
部分
infertile a.
integral
a.
perceive
理解；认识到
n.
蔑视
v.
蚀刻；铭记
folklore
n.
federation
inspire
完整的，整体的
v.
disdain
etch
不肥沃的
民间传说
n.
联邦政府
v.
鼓舞；激发
71
forefront
n.
最前线，最前部
framework
n.
convention
n.
大会
referendum
n.
全民公投
Australasian
Briton
a.
澳大拉西亚人；大洋洲人
n.
empire
英国人
n.
descent
dual
构架；框架
帝国
n.
血统
a.
enlist
双的
v.
征兵
demobilize
Turks
v.
遣散
n.
strategy
土耳其人
n.
战略，策略
commemorate
v.
庆祝，纪
念
devastating
a.
accelerate
v.
prosperity
n.
refugee
embrace
毁灭性的
加速；促进
繁荣
n.
难民
v.
包
含
scheme
n.
计
72
划
spotlight
signal
n.
公众注意的中心
v.
标志
Exercises
1. Explain terms.
(1)James Cook (2) Matthew Flinders (3) the First Fleet (4) A penal colony (5)
Sheep Industry (6) The Gold Rush (7) AIF (8) Gallipoli (9) ANZAC Day (10)
John Joseph Curtin (11) Robert Menzies (12) Australian economic boom
2. Answer questions.
(1) Why did Australia become a penal settlement for Britain?
(2) Why did the six colonies decide to federate at the end of the 1890s?
(3) What were the effects of the gold rush that occurred in Australia in the
1850s?
(4) Why was Australia willing to take part in World War I?
3. Questions for further consideration.
(1) Why do we say that the day of 1 January, 1901 symbolized that Australia
as a nation is born?
(2) Why did the First World War begin the transformation of Australian life from
that of six colonies to a united state aware of its new identity?
73
(3) What contributions did Australia make in World War II?
2.2 Reading passage: War and national survival by Stephen Alomes ①
(①Stephen Alomes: Professor of School of History Heritage and Society,
Faculty of Arts and Education, Deakin University, Victoria, Australia.
“War and national survival” by Stephen Alomes. 1998. National At Last? The
changing character of Australian Nationalism 1880-1988 [M]. Sydney: Angus &
Robertson. pp.112-123).
Having neither land borders nor linguistic or cultural boundaries, white
Australia had lacked two of the main traditional forces for the creation of a
sense of nationality. Although Australians had oddly tried to rectify this
deficiency with exaggerated fears of invasion since the early 1800s, it was not
until the 1940s that the threat of invasion became a real possibility. The
beginning of a European war in September 1939 brought both traditional and
new responses. Unlike Canada, which examined the situation for a week
before committing itself, Australia immediately declared itself on Britain’s side.
Australia, Prime Minister Menzies (1) declaimed, was at war simply because
Britain was at war. The twin drums (2) of proud Britishness and hatred of the
Hun (3) had a familiar sound. Nor was geographical confusion missing from
the rhetoric(4)as Menzies declared that ‘our frontiers were not only here but
on the Rhine and on the east coast of England …’.
74
Jingoism’s appeal (5), however, had been weakened by the horrors of the
Great War, horrors that had appropriately been symbolised by the Limbless
Soldiers Ball (6) in the 1938 celebrations. Even Menzies found it to be his
‘melancholy duty’ to make the announcement. Artist Norman Lindsay(7) drew
not a violent cartoon, as in the Great War, but pictured ‘The Old Firm’ of the
soldier
and
the
profiteer
standing
before
a
newsbanner
reading
‘War—Business as Usual---Prices Up’(8). The last quarter century had
reduced popular support for an imperial dominion culture more than had been
readily apparent on the eve of the war. Fears of Japan also reduced
enthusiasm for a European war except for those Australian men, some
unemployed, who saw in the army the prospects of income or work, service or
adventure after the grey 1930(9).
The period of the ‘phoney war(10)’, when little was happening in Europe, and
the delay in raising an Australian force contributed to a business-as-usual
indifference towards the war well into 1940, despite the evocation of the Anzac
tradition(11) by troop marches through the capital cities. Business, sport and
entertainment went on as before, as one ‘patriot’ lamented:
What’s the matter with the spirit of this nation … has patriotism gone out of
fashion?
75
“The Empire is in deadly danger” means nothing to Bill Smith(12)
with his safe job in the city, his surf over the weekends and “pitchers
Sat’dee night(13)” …
Young Brown who joins up is a “mug”(14); Young James who says
he is not going to “rush into anything(15)” is regarded as shrewd and
steady.
In these comfortable days of expeditionary war, sport and patriotism
could be mixed: a AFL knockout competition(16) raised ￡2500; ‘La
Marseillaise’ was played at Randwick and the Sydney Cricket Groundas (17)
a tribute to France. Despite a sense of continuity between the first
and second AIF(18), the Empire mattered little to many Australians and
after the Depression experience ‘looking after yourself first’ seemed
to have become the basic law of everyday life. It was to be an enduring
principle in twentieth-century Australia.
Not until May 1940, when the German advance across Europe meant that
Britain itself was under threat, did Australian imperial patriotism
reappear with almost the dedication and vigour of twenty-five years
before. The rhetoric of ‘Home’ (19), both genuine and a product of
imperial indoctrination, still had a compelling appeal. Images of British
stoicism, of the dedication of the King and Queen and their two daughters,
76
the British bulldog-like pugnacity of Churchill(20) and reports of
bombing around the famed buildings of London all stimulated Australia’s
alleged Britishness. The rhetoric of the ‘British character’ and ‘the
British spirit’ particularly appealed to preachers and editorialists,
to politicians and older Australians who wished to return to the
enthusiastic unity of 1914. Traditional loyalty or the opportunities for
adventure or both did have an effect in increasing the flow of recruits
for the new 7th Division.
The involvement of the 6th, 7th and 9th Divisions (21) in the Middle East
and the Greece campaign in 1940-41 might have suggested a replica of World
War 1 with ghosts of the Light Horse (22) and Gallipoli (23). The Gallipoli
disaster was also echoed in British blunders and defeats, including the
retreat through Greece when Australian troops almost totally lacked air
cover (24). Events in the Pacific, however, were to make the role of
‘spear-carrier to the Chief’ a superfluous colonial indulgence (25).
Japan’s bombing of Pearl Harbour on 7 December 1941 (26) reminded
Australians that their country and their defence lay in the Pacific not
in Europe, whatever their racial and cultural fantasies of Britishness.
The rapid Japanese advance into China and through South-East Asia in
the following months posed the fundamental question of how Australia would
be defended. Would the British play a traditional role through the Royal
77
Navy and the Singapore base (27), or would Australia have to stand alone
with a potentially large army but limited naval and air resources?
The sinking of the British battleships Prince of Wales and Repulse (28)
three days after Pearl Harbour and the revelation that the Singapore base
(hitherto the imaginary keystone of Australian defence), had grossly
inadequate fortifications made it clear that Britain would be of little,
if any, help. On 8 December 1941 the Labour prime minister of just over
two months, John Curtin(29), declared that ‘this is the gravest hour in
our history’ and appealed to Australians to face the challenge ‘with
full vigour and courage’. It was ‘our darkest hour’---‘the nation
itself is imperilled’:
Men and women of Australia, the call is to you for your courage, your
physical and mental ability, your inflexible determination that we
as a free people shall survive. My appeal to you is in the name of
Australia, for Australia is the stake (30) in this contest.
Australia’s first line of defence was not the Rhine or Afghanistan,
South Africa or Suez, but the islands of the Dutch East Indies and New
Guinea to its north. The call was not to imperial jingoism but to the real
national interest.
78
It was again the paradox of Australian nationalism that Australian
defence on the one occasion it mattered was, as before, conceived in
relation to a Great Power. On 27 December Curtin made his call to the US.
Recognising that to the British the war in the Pacific was of secondary
importance---‘Australia can go and Britain can still hold on’—he
looked to America, ‘free of any pangs’(31) of traditional links of
kinship with the UK, to ensure the defence of Australia. It was hard for
a ‘loyal’ colony to face reality. Many conservatives were disgusted.
Menzies said that Curtin had made ‘a great blunder’ if he thought that
Australia’s ties with Britain were merely ‘traditional’, for they were
‘real and indissoluble.’ In hundreds of letters-to-the-editor, writers
challenged Curtin. One asked of Australians, ‘who lives if England
dies?’, declaring that ‘England is recognised the world over as the
bulwark of democracy and freedom.’ The contradictions between imperial
rule and democracy, between Britain’s over-pressed forces and the
demanding Pacific situation escaped this ardent idealist of Empire.
In practical terms, placing Australia’s national interest first
meant bringing back Australian army divisions from the Middle East to halt
the rapid Japanese advance. Churchill reluctantly agreed that the 6th and
7th Divisions should return to Australia, the 9th remaining. When on the
79
water, Churchill diverted the convoys to Burma without prior
consultation. During an acrimonious exchange of cables Churchill cabled
with headmasterly presumption ‘we could not contemplate that you would
refuse our request and that of the President of the United Sates for
diversion of the leading Australian division to Burma’. Curtin did
refuse, placing the defence of Australia before traditional loyalties to
Great Powers. It was a rare occasion when the allegedly aggressive
Australians actually stood up for themselves against a larger power.
Loyalty to Britain and the Empire could still blind some Australians
to their own national interests. In London and Washington those servants
of empire and nation S. M. Bruce, Earle Page and R. G. Casey（32）did
not always see things from an Australian point of view; too often these
‘imperial statesmen’ had a London, not a Canberra perspective. Page even
offered written advice for Churchill’s use in the dispute over the diversion of the
7th Division and exercised direct censorship in handling messages from
Canberra to London. H. V. Evatt, the Minister for External Affairs, condemned
Page, who seemed to have acted in opposition to his
instructions. He remarked to Bruce of the government’s embarrassment at
having ‘our decisions over AIF ignored,’ concluding that ‘you are out
of touch with the home defence position here’. In her excellent study
of the role of the trio, F. J. Garner(33) cites another case of a failure
80
to express government objections, this time to a London base for a proposed
Far Eastern Council, although Bruce later revised his position. In
Washington, R. G. Casey was another good boy scout for the Empire: he
usually visited the US administration with the British ambassador; was
more concerned with bringing America into the war (as Britain wanted) than
with avoiding a Pacific war (as Australia wanted); did not pass on all
relevant information to Canberra; and altered an Australian request to
Roosevelt (34), also providing copies to the British chiefs of staff. When
Australia was under immediate threat of invasion in March 1942, Casey,
the lover of Empire and admirer of Churchill, chose—despite the
Australian government’s objections---to leave Washington to serve as the
United Kingdom’s minister of state in Cairo.
Given the servility of the imperial boy scouts, it might be asked
whether Casey served his country well in making the move. The dutiful
imperialists believed that the Australian government had, as Bruce
explained it to Churchill, a ‘somewhat ill-advised and certainly
irritation tone’ due to inexperience in government. That cliche has often
been repeated by the polite practitioners of foreign affairs commentary
in Australia. Such views failed to recognise that the politesse of the
English headmasterly style (with Australia cast in an obedient,
respectful rule as during Niemeyer’s visit(35) was inappropriate when
81
Australia was under threat and Britain’s interests were elsewhere. In
Evatt’s words (36)‘the stage of gentle persuasion has passed.’ It is
a sign of the conservative imperial deference of the foreign policy
history community that the imperial boy scouts are usually seen as more
effective than the impatient Labour larrikins. In reality they were
honoured only with the job of opening the doors of the black limousines
of Westminster(37), and it seems that they could not detect the courteous
indifference with which they were being received.
In later years Bruce and Casey became English lords, and in his last days in
office Menzies, now Sir Robert (38), anachronistically created a Churchill Trust.
Both the honours and the trust symbolised traditional Australian middle-class
upper-middle-class links to Britain. No Churchill Awards have been given for
the study of Churchill’s strategy in Greece, his focus on the Middle East or his
stress on Burma. And John Curtin’s role as saviour of Australia received no
official recognition nor memorial.
The American role in the defence of Australia was significant, but it came
slowly and with the terms that larger countries impose on smaller ones. Not
until April 1942 was General Douglas MacArthur (39) appointed Supreme
Commander for the South West Pacific, based in Australia. He arrived in
Australia in characteristically regal fashion with a large entourage, setting
82
himself up in the best of quarters in grand hotels. However, he brought more in
the way of ego than troops in the first instance. The crucial early American role
was in naval defence; the May 1942 and June 1942 Coral Sea and Midway
victories ended Japan’s naval dominance in the region, but it was also
essential to rebuff the Japanese on land. In August 1942 when Japanese
troops were 80 kilometres from Port Moresby (40) and launching a seaborne
attack on Milne Bay (41) at the south-east tip of New Guinea, the major
defence role was Australian; 54,000 Australians and 30,000 Americans forced
the Japanese back along the Kokoda Trail(42), and a small and almost entirely
Australian force broke the assault on Milne Bay – the first defeat of Japanese
land forces. Even in April 1943 there were four Australians fighting in the South
West Pacific for every American, although this changed dramatically by 1944
when over half of the one million servicemen fighting in the area were
American. Even in the short term, American demands were dramatic.
MacArthur treated the Australian government and army with indifference if not
veiled contempt, preferring the leadership of his own inexperienced officers to
that of the battle-hardened Australians. During the Japanese retreat,
Americans led the advancing forces, increasing US diplomatic and economic
opportunities in any post war division of spoils.
In economic spheres too, the Americans looked after their own interests.
America sought to weaken imperial preference and to extend American
83
markets at the expense of Britain during the war. Under Lend Lease (43), an
American-originated scheme to fund wartime production, Australia exported
much primary produce to the US and imported secondary industry materials; in
simple terms, from 1941-42 to 1944-45 over 40 per cent of Australian imports
came from the US. The Americans rejected most Australian attempts to import
industrial machinery for producing new defence equipment, preferring the
traditional view of Australia as a farm in the larger scheme of things. In
historian Michael Dunn’s calculations, the Australian contribution to Lend
Lease and to Reverse (or Reciprocal) Lend lease (44) was $A113 per head of
population compared with $96 from the US and $84 from Britain. The
industrialist Laurence Hartnett (45) noted that the American saw the Australian
role as a traditional one of ‘growing food and supplying troops’. The role of
America in postwar Australia was being clearly signalled.
In popular historical myth, war is seen as a force for national unity, a force for
nation-building. In Australia World War 2 can be seen as a total war which
galvanised the nation into action, demanding the development of every
scientific, economic, administrative and military resource. The contribution of
the war to industry, to science and to communications helped develop
secondary industry and government; it strengthened the federal government
and further integrated the states into a larger national economy. The demands
of a total war effort could only be made it a better Australia was promised in the
84
future and indeed the war did stimulate a new sense of Australia as well as
movements for social reform. Such myths, however, are often overstated.
Wars, like depressions, bring more disunity than unity. World War 2 brought
divisions between the middle class and working class; between profiteers and
those whose everyday necessities were rationed; between civilians and
soldiers; between American and Australian servicemen; between men and
women over types of work and rates of pay; between older Australians and
ethnic minorities; between workers, whose conditions occasionally drove them
to absenteeism or to strikes, and middle-class patriots; between dreams of a
better society and the images and reality of modern evil produced by the
turmoil and corruption of war; and finally between the rhetoric of liberty and the
often needless repression of opinion by the authorities.
Many middle-class Australians were displeased at the deprivations of the war.
They were sure that they had a mortgage on patriotism (46). One
letter-to-the-editor writer from Neutral Bay in Sydney believed that rewards
should follow from social position: ‘people of the middle-class do not feign
superiority in the social sense, but claim, and rightly, recognition of, and
proportionate recompense for, their greater contribution to the social order.
One Toorak (47) lady was particularly miffed at losing her domestic servant.
Could she carry on maintaining a large servantless house without neglecting
her children and husband, or would the situation lead to a breakdown? She
85
was answered by another mother, from north of the Yarra (48), with eight
rather than two children, who did not seem to find life abnormally hard.
Earnest patriots who beat their breasts (49) in letters columns were sure that
absentee women workers and striking workers are undermining the war effort.
Their own comfortable situations did not allow them to understand the
difficulties faced by women whose working hours had not been adjusted to
allow for the demands of child-care, or the feelings of male or female workers
worn down by sixty hours work per week in munitions factories. In Bishop E. H.
Burgmann’s words (50), ‘people who write letters about strikes make very few
guns or bombs. We can at least give our gratitude to those who do’. In the Blue
Mountains (51) leisure resorts the hotels were full and one observer saw no
‘visible lack of golf and tennis balls and tennis shoes’.
In a time of food and clothing rationing and of Manpower Regulations (52)
which pressed workers into essential industries, neither the wealth of the
Americans nor the corrupt wealth of the profiteers aided national morale.
Americans received twice the pay of Australian soldiers and more generous
food and alcohol allowances in their camps. While most Australian soldiers
were fighting in the jungles of Asia, Americans in Australia had presents of
chocolate, Coca-Cola and nylon stockings for Australian women. Their
association with Hollywood stars meant that they were received with
86
enthusiasm by many Australians dazzled by visitors from another world. On
the other hand there was understandable resentment against these flash
foreigners who seemed able to live so lavishly. American money also meant
access to the black market-although American soldiers were not alone there.
The world of profiteering disillusioned those Australians who were donating to
patriotic appeals, subscribing to Victory Loans (53) and wearing their Austerity
suits. But when all goods were in short supply, a Christmas present for the kids
sometimes made the black market more appealing. It was not the stuff,
however, of which a new social order was made.
The dangers, disruptions and dislocations of war generated changing sexual
morals, greater juvenile freedom and sometimes delinquency. Sudden
marriage, equally rapid divorce and marital infidelity became common as
troops came and went from the war zones. The painters captured this new
urban Australia. In Albert Tucker (54)’s Night Image and others in his ‘Images
of Modern Evil’ series, in John Perceval (55)’s Hornblower at Night and in
Arther Boyd’s St Kilda paintings the end of Australian innocence was vividly,
and alarmingly, depicted.
The instinct for survival aroused by wartime turbulence had national as well as
individual expressions. In three spheres there was a new awareness and an
attempted remarking of Australia. Firstly, there was a popular discovery of
87
Australian life; it was nurtured both by the improvisation required by the war
and by the organs of government publicity(56) which sought to build up
national morale for the war effort. Secondly, and in a related way, intellectuals
and critical commentators discovered Australia in its weaknesses as well as its
strengths in their painting, writing and analysis. Thirdly, the reorganisation of
government for the war effort was directed not only at immediate needs but at
building the institutions of a modern nation and, in some respects, a better
society. These areas of self-awareness and positive action were mirrored in a
more nature and independent approach to foreign policy in the war years and
after. In an uncharacteristically dramatic response, the engine of war
motivated a new Australian nationalism, concerned not just with the rhetoric of
national identity as in World War 1, but rather with new definitions and
perceptions of the role of Australia in the world and of the character and
direction of Australian society.
Notes
(1) Prime Minister Menzies (1894 - 1978): Australian politician and the
sixteenth Prime Minister of Australia. His second term saw him become
Australia's longest serving Prime Minister.
(2) drum: emotion.
(3) Hun: Germany, and it is used here as a pejorative slang.
(4) Nor was geographical confusion missing from the rhetoric: the
88
geographical descriptions were confusing.
(5) jingoism’s appeal: great powers of Europe.
(6) the Limbless Soldiers Ball: a dance to raise money to help people who lost
arms and legs in WWII.
(7) Artist Norman Lindsay(1879–1969): a prolific artist, sculptor, writer, editorial
cartoonist and scale modeler, as well as being a highly talented boxer.
(8) War—Business as Usual—Prices Up: a headline.
(9) the grey 1933: the Great Depression of 1930s.
(10) the ‘phoney war’: the name given to the period of time in World War Two
from September 1939 to April 1940 when, after the blitzkrieg attack on
Poland in September 1939, seemingly nothing happened. Many in Great
Britain expected a major calamity – but the title ‘Phoney War’ sums up
what happened in Western Europe – near enough nothing.
(11) the Anzac tradition: ANZAC stands for Australian and New Zealand Army
Corps. On 25 April every year, Australians commemorate ANZAC Day. It
commemorates the landing of Australian and New Zealand troops at
Gallipoli on 25 April 1915. The date, 25 April, was officially named
ANZAC Day in 1916.
(12) Bill Smith: an ordinary man.
(13) pitchers Sat’dee night: pictures or movies in a Saturday night.
(14) Young Brown who joins up is a “mug”: Young Brown who joins up in the
army is regarded as an idiot.
89
(15) “rush into anything”: in hurry to join up the army.
(16) a AFL knockout competition: the Australian Football League competition.
(17) ‘La Marseillaise’ was played at Randwick and Sydney Cricket Ground a
tribute to France. “La Marseillaise”: the national anthem of France.
Randwick: a suburb in south-eastern Sydney, in the state of New South
Wales, Australia. The Sydney Cricket Ground (SCG): a sports stadium
in Sydney.
(18) the first and second AIF: The First Australian Imperial Force (1st AIF): the
main expeditionary force of the Australian Army during World War I. The
Second Australian Imperial Force (2nd AIF) was the name given to the
volunteer personnel of the Australian Army in World War II.
(19) “home”: Britain.
(20) Churchill (1874–1965): a British politician known chiefly for his leadership
of the United Kingdom during World War II. He served as Prime Minister
of the United Kingdom from 1940 to 1945 and again from 1951 to 1955.
(21) the 6th,7th,and 9th Divisions: The 6th Division of the Australian Army: a unit
in the Second Australian Imperial Force (2nd AIF) during World War II. It
served in the North African campaign, the Greek campaign and the New
Guinea campaign, including the crucial battles of the Kokoda Track,
among others. The 7th Division of the Australian Military Forces was
raised in February 1940 to serve in World War II, as part of the Second
Australian Imperial Force (2nd AIF). The 9th Division: a division of the
90
Australian Army that served during World War II.
(22) the Light Horse: mounted troops with characteristics of both cavalry and
mounted infantry. They served during the Second Boer War and World
War I. The Australian 4th Light Horse Brigade at the Battle of Beersheba
in 1917 made what is reputedly “the last successful cavalry charge in
history”.
(23) Gallipoli: The Gallipoli campaign took place at Gallipoli peninsula in
Turkey from 25 April 1915 to 9 January 1916, during the First World War.
(24) air cover：protective use of military aircraft during ground operations.
(25) the role of ‘spear-carrier’to the Chief’a superfluous colonial indulgence:
chief’s enforcer.
(26) Pearl Harbour on 7 December 1941---The attack on Pearl Harbor, the
Battle of Pearl Harbor by some Americans, was a surprise military strike
conducted by the Imperial Japanese Navy against the United States
naval base at Pearl Harbor, Hawaii on the morning of December 7, 1941.
It resulted in the United States' entry into World War II.
(27) the Royal Navy and the Singapore base：the oldest of the British armed
services. From the mid-18th century to the middle of the 20th century, it
was the most powerful navy in the world, playing a key part in
establishing the British Empire as the dominant world power from 1815
until the early 1940s. The Singapore naval base was built and supplied to
sustain a siege long enough to enable Britain's European-based fleet to
91
reach the area. By 1940, however, it was clear that the British fleet and
armed forces were fully committed in Europe and the Middle East and
could not be spared to deal with a potential threat in Asia.
(28) the British battleships Prince of Wales and Repulse: a World War II naval
engagement which illustrated the effectiveness of aerial attacks against
naval forces that were not protected by air cover and the resulting
importance of including an aircraft carrier in any major fleet action.
(29) John Curtin (1885–1945): Australian politician and 14th Prime Minister of
Australia, led Australia when the Australian mainland came under direct
military threat during the Japanese advance in World War II. He is widely
regarded as one of the country's greatest Prime Ministers.
(30) in stake: in danger.
(31) “free of any pangs”: without pain.
(32) S. M. Bruce, Earle Page and R. G. Casey: regarded as the trio in the WWI
in Australia---S. M. Bruce (1883-1967): businessman, prime minister and
public servant. Earle Page(1880–1961): Australian politician, was the
eleventh Prime Minister of Australia, and is to date the second-longest
serving federal parliamentarian in Australian history with 41 years, 361
days in Parliament. R. G. Casey
(1890–1976):
an
Australian
politician,
Governor-General of Australia.
(33) F.J. Garner: Australian commentator.
92
diplomat
and
16th
(34) Roosevelt (1882–1945): the thirty-second President of the United States.
He was a central figure of the 20th century during a time of worldwide
economic crisis and world war. Elected to four terms in office, he served
from 1933 to 1945 and is the only U.S. president to have served more
than two terms.
(35) Niemeyer’s visit---Sir Otto ErnstNiemeyer (1883-1971)：financial controller
at the Treasury and a director at the Bank of England. He was also
treasurer of the National Association of Mental Health (UK) post World
War II. In July 1930, during Australia's Great Depression, he travelled to
Melbourne to advise James Scullin's government. There, he devised the
“ Niemeyer statement ” , a monthly statement of commonwealth
government financial transactions.
(36) Evatt (1894 - 1965): the Minister for External Affairs, politician and writer.
He was President of the United Nations General Assembly in 1948-49
and helped draft the United Nations Universal Declaration of Human
Rights (1948). He was leader of the Australian Labor Party from 1951 to
1960.
(37) the black limousines of Westminster: 威斯敏斯特的黑色豪华轿车。
(38) Sir Robert: Sir Robert Gordon Menzies.
(39) General Douglas MacArthur (1880–1964): an American general and Field
Marshal of the Philippine Army. He was a Chief of Staff of the United
States Army during the 1930s and later played a prominent role in the
93
Pacific theater of World War II.
(40) Port Moresby: the capital and largest city of Papua New Guinea (PNG).
The city is located on the shores of the Gulf of Papua, on the
southeastern coast of the island of New Guinea.
(41) Milne Bay: a large bay in Milne Bay Province, southeastern Papua New
Guinea. The area was a site of the Battle of Milne Bay in 1942. The bay
is named after Sir Alexander Milne.
(42) the Kokoda Trail: a single-file foot thoroughfare in a straight line —
through the Owen Stanley Range in Papua New Guinea (PNG). The
track is the most famous in PNG and is renowned as the location of the
World War II battle between Japanese and Australian forces in 1942.
(43) Lend Lease(租借法案):the name of the program under which the United
States of America supplied the United Kingdom, the Soviet Union, China,
France and other Allied nations with vast amounts of war material
between 1941 and 1945 in return for, in the case of Britain, military bases
in Newfoundland, Bermuda, and the British West Indies.
(44) Reverse (or Reciprocal) Lend Lease：a reciprocal aid agreement of the
United States with Great Britain, Australia, New Zealand, and the Free
French was announced. Under its terms a “reverse lend-lease” was
affected, whereby goods, services, shipping, and military installations
were given to American forces overseas. Other nations in which U.S.
forces were stationed subsequently adhered to the agreement.
94
(45) the industrialist Laurence Hartnett(1898–1986):an engineer who made
several important contributions to the Australian automotive industry.
(46) a mortgage on patriotism: to make subject to a claim or risk.
(47) Toorak: a suburb of Melbourne, Victoria, Australia.
(48) Yarra: an inner Melbourne municipality.
(49) beat their breasts: angry.
(50) Bishop E. H. Burgmann (1885-1967): Anglican bishop and social critic.
(51) the Blue Mountains: a section of the Main Western railway line in New
South Wales, Australia. It serves the Blue Mountains region to the west
of Sydney.
(52) Manpower Regulations: a notice of regulations comprising of a cream
cardboard rectangle, printed on one side with black and filled-in with blue
typing. The notice it titled “National Security (Man Power) Regulations
1943” and the regulations have been issued from the “Director-General
of Man Power”.
(53) Victory Loans: government appeals for money to finance the war effort in
WWI and WWII. The first domestic war loan was raised in November
1915, but not until the fourth campaign of November 1917 was the term
“Victory Loan” applied.
(54) Albert Tucker (1914- 1999): an Australian artist, pivotal in the
development of 20th century Australian Expressionist painting.
(55) John Perceval (1923 - 2000): Australian painter and potter. He was one of
95
a group of artists who brought radical innovations of style and
subject-matter to Australian painting in the 1940s.
(56) the organs of government publicity: organizations or institutions
which promote the government’s work. 政府宣传机构。
New words
rectify
v.
矫正，调整
deficiency
rhetoric
n.
n.
jingoism
appeal
不足，缺乏
花言巧语
n.
沙文主义
n.
吸引力，要求
melancholy
ad.
newsbanner = poster
phoney
忧郁的，悲伤的
n.
海报，招贴
a.
骗人
的
lament
surf
v.
悲哀，悲伤
n.
海浪
mug = idiot
shrewd
n.
a.
indoctrination
preacher
recruit
傻瓜
精明的
n.
灌输，教说
n.
传道人
v.
征募新兵
96
replica
n.
复制品
grossly
ad.
粗粗地
fortification
imperil
n.
防御攻势，要塞
v.
危害
imperial
a.
帝王的
paradox
n.
自相矛盾
conceive
v.
考虑，构思
blunder
n.
大错
indissoluble
bulwark
不能分开的
n.
ardent
halt
a.
壁垒
a.
热烈的，热心的
v.
divert
停止，踌躇
v.
转向，转移
acrimonious
cable
a.
严厉的，尖酸的
n.
电缆
headmasterly
ad.
监督地
presumption
n.
假定
contemplate
v.
预期
allegedly
aggressive
condemn
trio
ad.
依其申诉
a.
好斗的，有侵略性的
v.
谴责，处刑
n.
三人组
97
scout
n.
servility
侦察
n.
cliche
卑屈
n.
obedient
陈词滥调
a.
larrikin
服从的
n.
limousine
detect
恶闹
n.
v.
发现，察觉
anachronistically
saviour
regal
时代错误地
救助者
n.
rebuff
帝王
n.
随从
v.
seaborne
回绝
a.
海运的
v.
面罩，盖住
galvanise
ration
v.
刺激
v.
turmoil
配发
n.
repression
displease
deprivation
mortgage
feign
ad.
n.
entourage
veil
轿车
混乱
n.
镇压，压抑
v.
使生气
n.
剥夺
v.
抵押
v.
假装
98
proportionate
a.
recompense
成适当比例的
n.
报
酬
mif
v.
resort
发脾气
n.
常去之地
nylon n.
dazzle
flash
尼龙
v.
使炫耀，使眼花
a.
浮华的
disillusion
v.
subscribe
v.
juvenile
depict
订阅
a.
青少年的
delinquency
marital
醒悟
n.
行为不正
a.
婚姻的
v.
turbulence
描述
n.
improvisation
perception
骚乱
n.
即席创作
n.
pragmatism
encroachment
理解，感觉
n.
实用主义
n.
侵
犯
equator
n.
赤道
99
Exercises
1. Make True or False judgments.
(1) Primer Minister Menzies called for Australians to join the Second World
War, because Britain was at war.
(2) Most Australian men responded rapidly to Primer Minister Menzies’s call.
(3) John Curtin turned to the US for help in one of the milestones of Australian
history, and finally he received his official recognition from Churchill’s
Awards.
(4) S.M. Bruch, Earle Page and R.G. Casey are regarded as the imperial Boy
Scouts in following British policy and showing their loyalty to Britain.
(5) MacArthur demonstrated his strong love for Australia after he arrived in this
Southern continent.
(6) After the Second World War, Australia entered the economic boom, but the
social divisions began to emerge.
2．Answer questions.
(1) What were Australians’ reactions to the prospect of a Second World War in
only a short period after the first one?
(2) What characterized Australian relations with Britain and America during
World War II?
(3) What were some of the effects of World War II on Australia?
Chapter 3 Politics and economics
100
3.1 Overview
3.1.1 Australian politics: A British past and an Asian future
Australia’s political institutions reflect white Australia’s British heritage. By
1890, all the Australian colonies had established self-government, operating
under political structures inherited from the English system of government.
Australia’s political system follows the Western democratic tradition. Generally
speaking, the Australian Federation follows Britain’s Constitutional Monarchy.
The government imitates the example of the United States.
3.1.1.1 The Constitution
Australia is an independent self-governing state and a member of the
Commonwealth of Nations. The constitution of Australia (the Commonwealth
Australia Constitution), which became effective in 1901, is based on British
parliamentary traditions. The essence of the constitution was “one people, one
flag, one destiny.” The head of state is the British sovereign, and the head of
government is the Australian prime minister, who is responsible to the
Australian Parliament. Australia’s constitution is made up of the three powers:
parliament, executive and judicature.
3.1.1.2 The Parliament
The Parliament of Australia is an assembly of elected representatives,
consisting of the Queen (represented by the Governor-General), the Senate,
101
and the House of Representatives, that makes laws for the Australian people
and residents. The Parliament is at the very heart of the Commonwealth
government. These three elements make Australia a constitutional monarchy,
a federation and a parliamentary democracy.
The Governor-General is appointed by the Queen and performs a large
number of functions which are defined by the Constitution. The Australian
Senate is one of the most powerful upper houses of any parliament in the
world.
The Senate has 76 Senators. 12 are elected from each of the 6 states, and 2
each from the Australian Capital Territory and the Northern Territory.
The Senate has a lightly developed committee system and Senators spend
much of their time on committee work. The House of Representatives is the
lower house of the Australian Parliament. The House of Representatives has
150 members. Each represents a separate electoral division. The House is the
House of Government. Members are involved in law making, committee work
and in representing their electors.
3.1.1.3 The government
The Australian government falls into the Federal or Central government, the
state government and the local government. The Prime Minister of Australia is
the head of the government of the Commonwealth of Australia. The office of
102
Prime Minister is, in practice, the most powerful political office in Australia. The
Prime Minister nominates members of his or her parliamentary party to serve
as ministers, responsible for administering government departments such as
the Treasury, the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade or the Department
of Defence. The Constitution requires that all ministers be either a Member of
the House of Representatives or the Senate. The Cabinet of Australia is the
council of senior ministers of the Crown, responsible to parliament. The
Cabinet is appointed by the Governor-General. The Cabinet is a conventional
part of the government.
3.1.1.4 Commonwealth elections and referendum
Any Australian citizen who is 18 years old is entitled to vote at elections. If one
fails to vote, he will be punished by a fine. Commonwealth elections are
compulsory for all eligible persons.
Members of the House of Representatives and Senate have different methods
of voting. Members of the House of Representatives are elected by voters
using the voting method known as the alternative vote or preferential voting,
that is, a voter can rank the candidates listed on the ballot paper in the order of
that voter’s choice, and to indicate the candidates’names. Senators are
elected by voters using the voting method known as proportional
representation or single transferable vote. This method aims to create a
103
representative assemble in which the proportion of seats in the assembly
matches the pattern of votes cast during the election, which can ensure the
proportional representation of parties or the election of candidates according to
their relative popularity (Wang Zhijin, 2004: 67-68).
Referendum is a direct vote in which an entire electorate is asked to either
accept or reject a particular proposal. This may result in the adoption of a new
constitution, a constitutional amendment, a law, or simply a specific
government policy. The referendum is a form of direct democracy ideally
favoring the majority, and it is also compulsory.
3.1.1.5 Political parties
Australian politics operates on a two-party system. There are three major
political parties in Australia, which are represented in the federal Parliament:
the Australian Labor Party (ALP), the National Party of Australia (NPA), and
the Liberal Party of Australia (LPA).
The Australian Labor Party (ALP) is the oldest of the political parties in
Australia, having been founded in 1891. It represents the interests of the
worker, advocates a broad program of moderate socialization. The National
Party of Australia (NPA) reflects the outlook of the non-urban population. The
Liberal party pursues a liberal national policy and advocates a free enterprise
104
society. The aims of the NPA and the Liberal party have much in common, and
the two parties usually work in coalition (Zhang Xianping, 2007: 50-51).
3.1.1.6 Foreign policy
Australia’s early history was dominated by Britain. After the First World War,
the Australians had an increasingly vigorous sense of their separate identity.
But that identity was asserted as a British identity, though they think they are a
special sort of British. Most Australians then defined themselves as
“independent Australian Britons”. It is the First World War that sharpened the
awareness of Australian identity, because the war provided Australians a
chance to compare themselves with officers and men from Britain itself and
reinforced their sense of difference.
During the Second World War, Australia established its diplomatic relations
with the United States in 1940. When the Japanese bombed the city of Darwin
and Great Britain failed to give any help, John Curtin, the new Australian Labor
Prime Minister, stood up for Australia against Churchill with his speech:
“Australia looks to America, free of pangs as to our traditional links or kinship
with the United Kingdom” (Stephen Alomes, 1988: 113-115). It is Curtin who
was the first person in Australian history to dare to refuse Great Britain, which
marked a turning point in which Australia’s foreign policy shifted from its
reliance on Britain to dependence on the United States.
105
Australia’s key security, cultural and family links were with America and
Europe, but they seemed to be unwilling to provide Australia with the
opportunity to earn its living. Therefore, Australia would like to establish a new
relationship with Asia. The best prospects clearly lay with East Asia where
massive economic growth had been proceeding for decades and which had
become the principal market for Australia’s exports.
The complementarity of Australia’s economy with those of North East Asia has
already been demonstrated by the growth of Australia’s exports to the region.
This had started with fiber and bulk foods, then minerals for heavy industry,
then processed raw materials, then higher quality services and goods.
Complementarity in Australian export trade with North East Asia was higher
than in any other important trading relationship of Australia or of North East
Asia.
Growing awareness during the 1960s and 1970s of the need for Australia to
focus more on East Asia and North East Asia in various fields such as
immigration, education and culture not only altered Australia ’ s public
perception of Asia, it also prompted the Australian government to develop
positive steps towards integration with the region. A policy of “constructive
engagement with Asia” became a fundamental principle in the foreign policy of
106
all political parties (Zhao Jialian and Fang Ailun, 2004: 90-91).
As early as 1981 the Australian international relations scholar Nancy Viviani
(1980) said that Australian foreign policy seemed to be a matter of holding firm
with one hand to the United States while reaching out with the other hand to
East Asia. On the one hand, today the United States is Australia’s second
largest trading partner and largest resources of investment, as well as a key
regional and global partner in achieving more open markets. On the other
hand, Australia has a diplomatic and economic engagement in the dynamic
and diverse Asia-Pacific region. At the same time, it acts as an active member
of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC), the East Asia Summit
(EAS), the ASEAN Regional Forum (ARF) and the Pacific Islands Forum (PIF)
as well. Australia has Anglo-Celtic cultural root which differs with Asian value
systems, but this does not bring about obstacles for Australia in promoting the
development with Asian nations. Australia tried to minimize and override the
cultural differences between Australia and Asia (Rawdon Dalrymple,
2003:25-44).
New words
imitate
v.
模仿，仿效
parliamentary
essence
sovereign
a.
议会的；国会的
n.
本质
n.
君主
107
judicial
a.
法庭的
representative
n.
constitutional
代表
a.
宪法的
nominate
v.
任命
Treasury
n.
财政部
crown
n.
cabinet
王权
n.
内阁
compulsory
a.
preferential
a.
优先的
proportional
a.
成比例的
transferable
a.
可转让的
popularity
义务的
n.
amendment
普及
n.
修
正
ideally
ad.
advocate
outlook
enterprise
理想地
v.
n.
观点
n.
coalition
n.
vigorous
a.
reinforce
v.
diplomatic
提倡，拥护
企业；事业
联合
有活力的；精力充沛的
加强，加固
a.
外交的
108
kinship
n.
reliance
亲属关系，家属关系
n.
prospect
信赖
n.
前途
complementarity
fiber
n.
bulk
n.
互补性
纤维
大多数，大部分
mineral
n.
矿物质
processed
a.
perception
n.
prompt
加工的
感觉；看法
v.
integration
促进；激起
n.
dynamic
集成
a.
summit
forum
n.
动态的；有活力的
n.
最高级会议
n.
论坛
override
v.
conform
v.
推翻
使一致；使遵守
Exercises
1. Explain terms.
(1) the Governor-General (2) Australian three-tier system
(3) referendum
(4) the Liberal Party of Australia
(5) the Australian Labor Party
109
2. Answer questions.
(1) Why did the six colonies decide to unite at the end of the 1890s?
(2) What does the Australian Federate Parliament consist of?
(3) How did World War II affect Australia's foreign policy?
3. Questions for further consideration.
(1) What is the High Court’s role in a democracy?
(2) How has the constitution changed to match social change?
(3) What are the principal features of Australia’s political system?
(4) How do Australian young people today consider the Governor-General?
(5) Why does the Queen appear on Australian coins?
(6) What role did ‘national sentiment’ play in Australian federation?
(7) What does Asia mean to Australia?
(8) How has Australia’s location in the Asia-Pacific region shaped its relations
to Britain and the Empire?
(9) Is Australia an Asian country?
3.1.2 Australian ecnomics: From a country riding on the sheeps’back to a
stable and competitive economy
3.1.2.1
The outline of the history of Australian economy
110
Bernard Attard, Professor of University of Leicester in his article entitled The
Economic History of Australia from 1788: An Introduction, divided the history of
Australian economy into the four periods (Bernard Attard, March 16, 2008).
The economy in the period of 1788-1820 is described as the“bridgehead
economy” by Australia's foremost economic historians, N. G. Butlin, as he
refers to the earliest decades of British occupation when the colony was
essentially a penal institution. The“bridgehead economy” is the beginning in
the creation of a private economy to support the penal settlement. Senior
officials and emancipated convicts occupied the massive grassland of
Indigenous people where they developed the merino which is the most
important breed of sheep brought from Britain. Merinos produce more wool
than any other breed. The sheep industry and the farming industry form the
earlier development in Australia’s economy. From the 1820s economic growth
was based increasingly upon the production of fine wool and other rural
commodities for markets.
The period of 1820-1900 saw the growth of a colonial economy. As the
economy expanded and convict transportation ended, large-scale immigration
came into Australia with their skills which contributed enormously to the
economy's growth. The colonial economy's structure and growth of population,
as well, helped Australia expand its economic development. British finance
111
also played an important role in the growth of this period. The discovery of gold
in 1851 led to the resumption of wool as the principal provider of economic
growth by 1860. In 1901, the six colonies federated, creating the
Commonwealth of Australia. The founding of the Federation promotes the
development of manufacturing. All this provided the foundation for the
establishment of free colonial societies. To balance, secure property rights and
democratic political systems created stable conditions and fostered growth.
The period of 1901-1974 brought the rise of manufacturing and protectionism.
The Australian economy depends heavily on its resources. That is to say, the
earlier
structure
in
economy
is
a
resource-based
economy.
While
wool-growing remained at the centre of economic activity, a variety of new
goods such as wheat, dairy and manufacturing became a part of the Australian
export repertoire. After the Second World War, manufacturing became the
most dynamic part of the Australian economy. In 1931-1932, Australia suffered
the Great Depression, but the depression led to a protective economy which
relied more on manufacturing. Import restrictions implemented by the
government of the time led to increased profits to the manufacturing industry,
which encompassed a wide range of industries including motor vehicles, metal
processing, and chemicals. The manufacturing industry was upheld only to
serve the domestic market. This was led by economic policy makers who
proposed “ import replacement ” strategies. After the Second World War,
112
manufacturing became the most dynamic part of the economy.
The fourth period is in the period of liberalization and structural change from
1974 to present. Australia is one of the most laissez-faire capitalist economies
increasingly. Australia is the fourth largest economy in the Asia Pacific region
and regions on service industries. Australia in this period is no longer a
resource-based economy. The shift towards a knowledge-based economy can
be seen through Australia’s rapid expansion of service industries and an
increase in IT skills. Australia has recorded 17 consecutive years of economic
growth since 1992. This has been one of the most stable and productive
periods of Australia’s modern history. Furthermore, Australia ranks first in the
Asia-Pacific region for labor, agricultural and industrial productivity per person
employed. The living standards in Australia surpass those of all Group of Eight
countries except the United States. Today the five key phrases used to
describe the modern Australian economy in this period are sound economic
management; advanced economic structure; knowledge-based industries;
financial markets; and emphasis on reforms.
3.1.2.2 Agriculture
Australia is a major agricultural producer and exporter. There is a mix of
irrigation and dry-land framing. Irrigation in Australia is a widespread practice
to supplement low rainfall levels with water from other sources to assist in the
113
production of crops. Today Australia has become one of the leading
agricultural producers in the world by applying modern irrigation techniques to
arid soils.
There are three main zones for the development of agriculture. One is the high
rainfall zone, which is located in generally coastal areas, and used for dairying,
prime lamb, beef and wool production. The second zone is the wheat one
which is used for cropping (especially for winter crops), the grazing of sheep
(for wool, lamb and mutton) and the raising of beef cattle. The last one is the
pastoral zone characterized by low rainfall, poor soils, and large area farming
activities involving the grazing of beef cattle and sheep for wool and mutton.
Besides, Australia is one of the world’s largest producers of food and crops.
For example, cereals, oilseeds and grain legumes are produced on a large
scale for human consumption and livestock feed. Fruit, nuts and vegetables
are well-known not only in Australia but also in the world (Wang Zhijin，2004:
118-122).
3.1.2.3 Industry
Australia is rich in valuable industrial resources, notably bauxite, coal,
diamonds, gold, iron, ore, natural gas, nickel, petroleum and uranium.
Mining in Australia is a significant primary industry and contributor to the
economy of Australia. Many different ores and minerals are mined throughout
114
the country. Australia is the world's largest exporter of coal (35% of
international trade), iron ore, lead, diamonds, rutile, zinc and zirconium,
second largest of gold and uranium, and third largest of aluminium.
Australia is rapidly becoming a highly industrialized nation. A few decades ago
the nation was mainly an exporter of raw materials, today manufacturing
employs about 30 percent of the working population and produces about a
third of the national income. It is high on the list of the world’s trading nations.
Since the Second World War, the industries that have developed most are
those associated with rapid technological changes and rising standards of
living. Industries such a s engineering, metals and chemicals, which have been
able to replace imports, have grown at the fastest rates (He Tian，2001：170).
The structure of the Australian industry reflects the economy’s traditional
strengths in agriculture and mining. These strengths sustain their associated
manufacturing industry, making them major exporters.
3.1.2.4 Trade and investment
Australia is a medium-sized trading nation. In 2000, Australia exports grew by
25% to reach a total value of a $ 143 billion, representing the best export
growth Australia has experienced for twenty-one years. Australia’s major
commodities for exports include coal, crude oil, iron ore, aluminium, wheat,
115
beef and wool.
The Australian Government established bilateral trade in the region to improve
market access for goods and services. As one of the world’s most efficient
agricultural producers, Australia has a particularly keen interest in ensuring an
open market for agricultural goods.
Australia welcomes foreign investment, subject to legislative guidelines, and
makes an effort to draw on foreign capital that will assist in the development of
competitive industries, thereby creating jobs and increasing exports.
3.1.2.5 Transportation
The total map length of Australian roads is about 810,000 kilometres. Of all the
states and territories, New South Wales has the greatest length of bitumen or
concrete roads, just over half of all the roads in that state while South Australia
has the lowest percentage of bitumen or concrete roads. About 9 million
vehicles driving on the roads are for business use, going to and from work and
other private uses.
Australia’s rail system is comprised of nearly 40,000 kilometres of private and
government broad, standard and narrow gauge tracks. The diversity of track
gauges in Australia reflected the infrastructural development of various states
116
in history.
3.1.2.6 Banking
The Australian banking system consists of the Reserve Bank of Australia and
33 commercial banks. Four major commercial banks are the Commonwealth
Bank of Australia, Australia and New Zealand Banking Group, Westpac
Banking corporation and the National Australian Bank Ltd.
Banks in Australia were divided into two distinct categories, known as saving
banks and trading banks. Saving banks paid virtually no interest to their
depositors and their lending activities were restricted to providing mortgages.
Trading banks were essentially merchant banks, which did not provide
services to the general public.
Originally the role of central bank was performed by the Commonwealth Bank
of Australia, then a government-owned but essentially
commercially-operated banking organization. This arrangement caused some
discomfort for the other banks, and as a result the central bank function was
transferred to the newly-created Reserve Bank of Australia in 1961
(Zhang Xianping，2007：81-82).
Australia is one of the most laissez-faire capitalist economies. The Sheep
117
industry became a pillar of the early settlement. The 1851 gold rush laid the
basis for self-sustaining economic growth, with the flood of immigrants pouring
in. The post-war prosperity brought about a comprehensive development in
almost every field of the society. Rich in natural resources, Australia is a major
exporter of agricultural products, particularly wheat and wool, minerals such as
iron-ore and gold, and energy in the form of liquified natural gas and coal. Safe,
stable, and prosperous, Australia is an increasingly attractive hub for global
and regional business operations.
New words
bridgehead
foremost
a.
a.
emancipate
breed
桥头堡的
最重要的
v.
解放
n.
品种
enormously
ad.
resumption
n.
property
encompass
恢复；取回
n.
财产
protectionism
implement
非常地
n.
贸易保护主义
v.
实施
v.
包
围
118
uphold
v.
赞成
laissez-faire
a.
consecutive
a.
rank
自由放任的
连续不断的
v.
排列
surpass
v.
supplement
rainfall
优于；超越
v.
补充
n.
prime
降雨
a.
lamb
最好的
n.
羔羊
pastoral
a.
mutton
乡村的
n.
cereal
绵羊
n.
谷类食品
oilseed
n.
legume
n.
含油种子（如花生仁、棉籽等）
豆
类
consumption
livestock
家畜
n.
nickel
铝土矿
n.
uranium
rutile
消费；消耗
n.
bauxite
ore
n.
镍
n.
铀
n.
矿石
n.
金红石
119
zinc
n.
锌
zirconium
n.
metals
锆
n.
crude
五金
a.
天然的，未加工的
bilateral
a.
bitumen
n.
沥青
concrete
a.
混凝土的
rail
双边的
n.
gauge
铁轨，铁道
n.
标准尺寸；容量规
格
infrastructural
virtually
hub
基础结构的
ad.
depositor
pillar
a.
事实上
n.
存款人
n.
栋梁
n.
中心
Exercises
1. Explain terms.
(1) Merinos (2) wool industry
(3) protectionism in Australia
2. Answer questions.
(1) What are some features of the manufacturing industry in Australia?
120
(2) Why is Australia one of the world’s leading producers of food and natural
fibres?
(3) Is Australia rich in natural resources? Why?
3. Questions for further consideration.
(1) Why is Australia well-known as a country “Riding on the Sheep’s Back”?
(2) What economic factors influenced land usage following colonisation?
(3) What problems is Australian agriculture facing?
(4) Why does Australia keep herself prosperous and stable in economy?
(5) Is economic policy largely dictated by global economic forces?
3.2 Reading passage: Getting a Grip on Bonecrushers by Tom Dusevic ①
(①Tom Dusevic: National Chief Reporter, The Australian. Sydney, Australia.
“ Getting a Grip on Bonecrushers” by Tom Dusevic. July 27, 2010. A Plus, The
Australian. Sydney: News Limited. Page 11.)
A Sturdy grip and greet is a handy tool for holding on to power
THE average person shakes hands about 15,000 times in a lifetime. For real
estate agents, bouncers and political players, the number of grip and greets
could easily be in six figures.
Old-school leaders such as Bob Menzies (1), who often spoke at town halls,
121
sale yards or from the back of a truck, could rack up (2) a lifetime's worth of
greetings in a five-week campaign.
Especially at election time, politicians live and die by the handshake. A few
days before the November polling date (3), Kevin (4) 07's hand was out of
action (5), presumably through overuse after a hectic year. By that late stage in
the contest Rudd had all but secured victory for Labour (6).
During the 2004 contest (7), challenger Mark Latham (8), then 43, crossed
paths with incumbent John Howard (9), then 65, outside a radio studio. Iron
Mark (10) pulled Little Johnny (11) in close with a ferocious grab. The Labour
candidate's hand-pumping vigour, his illegal arrival into prime ministerial air
space and his expression of aggro remain fresh in many minds to this day,
even though the scene was a fleeting one.
The incident helped voters see in high-definition giga pixels that a side of
Latham they felt would worry them at night if he ever got his hands on the
levers. Never mind that the episode has a back story that explains the Labour
leader's actions that day.
Handshakes count: they relay a lot of information in a short time, perfect for a
time-poor political candidate.
According to American body language expert Patti Wood (12), “the handshake
is the quickest, most effective way to establish rapport with another person”.
122
She cites US research that shows it takes an average of three hours of
continuous interaction to develop the same level of rapport that you get with a
handshake.
Perhaps we should be grateful that political gladhanders can do their business
in quick-time and allow us to get on with our shopping, walking the dog or
cooking if they come to the door. But not every politician has the knack.
It's a subtle art built over years in the field. It is all about body mechanics,
intuition and timing.
“As a candidate, if you're out on the hustings you can't just walk up to someone
and shake their hands,” says federal Labour MP John Murphy (13), who is
contesting the re-constituted seat of Reid (14) in Sydney's inner west.
The other day he was at a local railway station at 6.30am. “You introduce
yourself, give them some campaign material and ask a few general questions.
When the conversation is finished you'll know if it's the right moment to shake
hands.”
A study released this month by researchers at the University of Manchester
(15), and funded by car company Chevrolet (16), reported a “crisis of
confidence” among 70 per cent of Britons (17) when it comes to a simple
handshake. The scientists came up with a formula for the “perfect handshake”,
taking into account the 12 primary measures “needed to convey respect and
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trust to the recipient”. It's just the sort of thing a junior apparatchik would lust
for in an iPhone apple (18).
“The rules for men and women are the same,” says Geoffrey Beattie (19), who
devised the formula.
“Right hand, a complete grip and a firm squeeze (but not too strong) in a
mid-point position between yourself and the other person, a cool and dry palm,
approximately three shakes, with a medium level of vigour, held for no longer
than two to three seconds, with eye contact kept throughout and a good
natural smile with a slow offset with, of course, an appropriate accompanying
verbal statement, make up the basic constituent parts for the perfect
handshake.”
This is the stuff your dad should have taught you. But it's surprising how many
of our elite politicos -- past and present -- fall short of (20) the mark. Before the
2007 campaign, The Australian had the opportunity to shake hands, on arrival
and departure, at a briefing with Labour's “gang of four” economics team, the
people who would soon be steering the ship of state.
For a former diplomat, Rudd's handshake was disappointing (grabby, unable
to get purchase beyond pudgy fingers). Wayne Swan (21), a country boy, footy
champ and political veteran, had a weak squeeze. Lindsay Tanner (22)'s effort
was insipid (dead fish).
124
Julia Gillard (23) was a revelation: firm grip, nice squeeze, great eye contact,
hint of a smile, a warm greeting without familiarity. She put the blokes of the
kitchen cabinet to shame.
In political, business, education, social welfare, diplomatic and industrial circles,
Gillard's greeting leaves a good impression.
“She's got a firm grip,” says a man who shook the Prime Minister's hand on the
day she called the election. “But the really striking thing is her strong eye
contact.”
Another feature of this campaign has been Gillard's willingness to plant kisses,
and not just bonny babies in Swan's north Brisbane electorate on the first full
day on the hustings.
The woman at the top of the pecking order has form (24).
Gillard titillated the punters in May 2008 after the Treasurer delivered his first
budget speech. She kissed him on the cheek to congratulate him, placing her
right hand on his neck.
Given (25) this is the first time in federal politics a woman has asked the
people for their endorsement, Gillard will set the standard on smooch etiquette.
Governor-General Quentin Bryce (26) is in the same league as the Prime
Minister on handshaking.
125
Deputy Liberal leader Julie Bishop (27) rates highly, as does her colleague
Helen Coonan (28), both steely lawyers.
Tanya Plibersek (29) has the right stuff. Fine-boned Maxine McKew (30) is a
little handicapped, but a great voice and natural warmth give her an edge in
meet and greets.
In her day, former Howard mainstay Jackie Kelly (31) was known for a matey
grip.
In general, the Tories are better than the Comrades at this form of
business-like intimacy, although honourable mentions must go to Peter Garrett
(32), Craig Emerson (33) and Stephen Smith (34).
One-time Liberal leaders Malcolm Turnbull (35), Brendan Nelson (36) and
Alexander Downer (37) are of the first order: safe hands. The Nats (38) are
mostly as you'd expect: solid, earthy, large.
Kim Beazley (39) is average, at best, although the Washington cocktail circuit
may force him to lift his greeting game.
Of the minor parties, Natasha Stott-Despoja (40) is firm and friendly, while Bob
Brown (41) is always pleased to see you, but his soft hand lingers long.
It could be a coincidence, but the best two handshake exponents today are
Gillard and Tony Abbott (42). On Sunday night, just after their leader's debate,
126
the two were captured for posterity by the cameras in a moment of relief and
bliss, love and war, sealed with a handshake.
You might expect Abbott to be overbearing, such is his brawny image and
body strength.
During the 2007 campaign, we all saw his boorish side when the then health
minister arrived late for a televised debate against Nicola Roxon (43) at the
National Press Club (44). At its conclusion, the opponents shook hands for the
cameras.
Roxon niggled Abbott about not being on time. He said it wasn't intentional.
Then Roxon said: “You can control these things mate (45). I'm sure had you
wanted to you could (46).”
“That's bullshit, replied Abbott. You're being deliberately unpleasant. I suppose
you can't help yourself, can you.”
A bad day escalated into a miserable campaign for the Howard loyalist.
Yet in most of the intimate crafts of politicking, Abbott is a star performer. He's
an impressive, off-the-cuff (47) speaker, more comfortable on the back of a ute
in the bush than debating the Prime Minister in the wormy arena of a
nationally-televised policy debate.
127
As a welcomer, he's subtle in touch, warm in demeanour and focused on the
person he's greeting. As soon as Abbott meets someone, he's quick to repeat
their name, a memory enhancement trick to be sure. But his recall for people's
names is akin to (48) Howard's, who was a master of the name game.
Given his engaging manner, another surprisingly poor handshake performer is
Peter Costello (49). Flabby, meaty, fleshy are the words commonly associated
with his handiwork. Could it be something common to Essendon number-one
ticket holders (50)?
You'll often hear it said about the Bombers: they're big and soft.
It's a testament to the ambition and talent of both Tanner (51) and Costello that
they were able to get so far in public life given this basic inadequacy. For all his
potency, Paul Keating (52) was another with a lacklustre grip. Could it be the
curse of Treasury, which steals your youth and weakens your hold? Tight
with the purse strings, loose on the handshake? You could put Ken Henry (53)
in the wishy-washy (54) hand club, too.
Although the wince and feeble grip may just be the Treasury secretary's
instinctive response to meeting journalists.
By many accounts, Bob Hawke (55)'s handshake gets lost amid a back slap,
tight embrace or kiss. In his prime, people just wanted to touch him, get near to
him, especially during election campaigns.
128
But as a man who worked for Keating at the time once pointed out, although
Hawke grabbed and gripped hungrily whatever hand came his way, the Silver
Bodgie (56)'s eyes were scanning the room, perhaps looking for a predator or
the best-looking woman.
Howard's grasp grew in the job. Just ask Costello. From an exaggerated and
stiff bearing in his first term, almost like a stage shake, he became more
relaxed and comfortable in his “welcome to my office” greeting. But towards
the end of his innings, long after George W. Bush (57) called him a “man of
steel” and when Rudd became Labour leader, his handshake became even
firmer. Was he hanging on for dear life?
On the eve of his last campaign, when he was running on empty, Howard's
grip was vice-like and he did not adjust the pressure-setting for the age, size or
gender of the recipient. “That hurt,” said one ancient Liberal soul to her
more-ancient husband at a Sydney event after Howard crunched her hand as
he made his way to the exit.
According to Latham, at the St George Leagues Club (58) a week from polling
day in 2004, Howard laid a bonecrusher on the former Labour leader's wife
Janine (59), who told her husband that “it really hurt”.
“Howard deserved a lot more than a firm handshake,” he wrote in The Latham
Diaries about their fateful assignation on the day before the election.
129
“Throughout the campaign, every time I saw him, he kept on trying to give me
a bonecrusher, squeezing tight and shaking with his arm, instead of his wrist,
like a flapping motion. It's a small man's thing, trying to show you can match
the big guy at something.” (60)
So the incident was really tribal payback (61) from the Westie warrior. He got
that right.
Iron Mark paid for it and Howard was back, his hold on power strengthened.
Notes:
(1) Bob Menzies (1894–1978): the 12th Prime Minister of Australia.
(2) rack up: to win.
(3) polling date: the day appointed for an election.
(4) Kevin: Kevin Michael Rudd, the current Minister for Foreign Affairs, and a
former Prime Minister of Australia.
(5) out of action: ineffective, not working.
(6) Labour: the Australian Labour Party.
(7) the 2004 contest: the 2004 Federal elections. The Liberal Party and the
National Party defeated the Labor Party.
(8) Mark Latham (1961- ): leader of the Australian Labor Party.
(9) John Howard (1939- ): the 25th Prime Minister of Australia.
(10) Iron Mark: Mark Latham.
130
(11) Little Johnny: John Howard.
(12) Patti Wood: a certified speaking professional and currently on the
Continuing Education faculty of Emony University.
(13) John Murphy (1950- ): an Australian Labor Party member.
(14) Reid: John Thomas Reid (1873–1963): an Australian politician.
(15) the University of Manchester: 英国曼彻斯特大学。
(16) Chevrolet: a brand of vehicle produced by General Motors Company.
(17) Britons: British people.
(18) an iPhone app: The applications available can be downloaded directly by
the cell phone, or downloaded to a computer and transferred to the phone.
(19) Geoffrey Beattie: a psychologist at the University of Manchester.
(20) fall short of: not enough, do not reach.
(21) Wayne Swan (1954- ): the Deputy Prime Minister of Australia.
(22) Lindsay Tanner (1956- ): a former Australian member of the House of
Representatives representing the Division of Melbourne, Victoria, for the
Australian Labor Party, having first won the seat at the 1993 federal
election.
(23) Julia Gillard: the 27th and current Prime Minister of Australia since June
2010.
(24) The woman at the top of the pecking order has form: Julia Gillard’s
recent performance as the country’s leader has been well received.
The woman here refers to Julia Gillard. The phrase “at the top of the
131
pecking order” means if a person is at the top of the pecking order, s/he
is the most important or most successful one.
(25) given: granted as a supposition. e.g. Given the condition of the engine, it
is a wonder that it even starts.
(26) Quentin Bryce (1942- ): the 25th and current Governor-General of
Australia.
(27) Julie Bishop (1956- ): an Australian politician and the current Deputy
Leader of the Opposition in the Parliament of Australia.
(28) Helen Coonan (1947- ): Australian politician, has been a Liberal member
of the Australian Senate.
(29) Tanya Plibersek (1969- ): Australian politician with the Australian Labor
Party.
(30) Maxine McKew (1953 - ): an Australian politician and journalist.
(31) Jackie Kelly (1964 - ): former Australian politician.
(32) Peter Garrett (1953 - ): an Australian musician, environmentalist and
politician.
(33) Craig Emerson (1954 - ): an Australian politician who has been an
Australian
Labor
Party
member
of
the
Australian
Representatives since October 1998.
(34) Stephen Smith (1967 - ): an American media personality.
(35) Malcolm Turnbull (1954 - ): an Australian politician.
(36) Brendan Nelson (1958 - ): a former Australian politician.
132
House
of
(37) Alexander Downer (1951- ): a Liberal member of Australian Parliament.
(38) The Nats: The National Party of Australia.
(39) Kim Beazley (1948 - ): an Australian politician, diplomat and academic.
(40) Natasha Stott-Despoja (1969 - ): an Australian former politician and
former leader of the Australian Democrats.
(41) Bob Brown (1944 - ): an Australian senator, the inaugural Parliamentary
Leader of the Australian Greens.
(42) Tony Abbott (1957 - ): the Leader of the Opposition in the Australian
House of Representatives.
(43) Nicola Roxon (1969 - ): an Australian former politician and former leader
of the Australian Democrats.
(44) the National Press Club: Media organisation that hosts speakers, and
often broadcasts on the ABC.
(45) You can control these things mate: You have the ability to control such
things.
(46) I'm sure had you wanted to you could: If you wanted to do that, you could
have.
(47) off-the-cuff: without preparation.
(48) akin to: similar to.
(49) Peter Costello (1957): an Australian lawyer and former politician.
(50) Essendon number-one ticket holders: Every Australian Football League
club chooses one person to be their ‘number one ticket holder’. The
133
phrase means the person is a supporter of the club. It is good publicity
for the club as they usually chose a famous person to be their number
one ticket holder.
(51) Tanner (1956): a former Australian member of the House of
Representatives, and a member of the Australian Government from 3
December 2007, serving as the Minister for Finance and Deregulation.
(52) Paul Keating (1944- ): a former Australian politician, and was the 24th
Prime Minister of Australia, serving from 1991 to 1996.
(53) Ken Henry (1957 - ): an Australian economist and public servant.
(54) wishy-washy: Not strong or certain.
(55) Bob Hawke (1929 - ): the 23rd Prime Minister of Australia and longest
serving Australian Labor Party Prime Minister.
(56) the Silver Bodgie: Hawke.
(57) George W. Bush (1946 - ): the 43rd President of the United States,
serving from 2001 to 2009.
(58) the St George Leagues Club: St George is a rugby league team. Each
team has a ‘leagues club’ which is a venue for fans of the club to go to.
(59) Janine: John Howard’s wife.
(60) It's a small man's thing, trying to show you can match the big guy at
something: A smaller man in height trying to shake another man’s hand
aggressively to show they are equal or better than that person.
(61) tribal payback: revenge on the other.
134
New words
bonecrusher
sturdy
grip
紧握
a.
强健的
n.
紧握
estate
n.
bouncer
poll
n.
房地产
n.
大人物，巨人
v.
投票
presumably
hectic
ad.
a.
contest
兴奋的
n.
incumbent
pump
现任的
a.
惊人的
n.
握住
v.
ministerial
aggro
争夺
a.
ferocious
grab
大概
抽动
a.
内阁的
n.
fleeting
闹事
a.
飞逝的
giga
n.
千兆
pixel
n.
象素
lever
n.
控制杆
count
v.
有价值
135
rapport
n.
gladhander
knack
n.
subtle
a.
密切关系
n.
热情洋溢的人
诀窍
微妙的
mechanics
n.
健美
操
intuition
n.
直觉
hustings
n.
选举程序
recipient
n.
接受者
apparatchik
lust
n.
职业政党工作人员
v.
渴望
squeeze
v.
紧握
approximately
ad.
大约
offset
n.
补偿
verbal
a.
口头的
constituent
elite
a.
选举的
n.
精英
politico
n.
政客
briefing
n.
简报
steer
grabby
pudgy
v.
控制，引导
a.
贪婪的
a.
短而粗的
136
footy
a.
champ
无足轻重的，无关紧要的
n.
冠
军
veteran
n.
insipid
老手
a.
revelation
bloke
无趣的
n.
启示
n.
家伙
bonny
a.
漂亮的
titillate
v.
punter
n.
使高兴
treasurer
tabloid
顾客
n.
会计
n.
小报
endorsement
n.
认
可
smooch
n.
接
吻
etiquette
rate
n.
礼节
v.
steely
被评价
a.
mainstay
matey
intimacy
钢铁般的
n.
支柱
a.
友好的
n.
亲密
137
earthy
a.
cocktail
朴实的
n.
鸡尾酒
circuit
n.
巡回
linger
v.
磨蹭
coincidence
n.
exponent
n.
posterity
seal
巧合
说明者
n.
后代
v.
密封
overbearing
a.
傲慢的
brawny
a.
boorish
a.
笨拙的
bullshit
n.
胡说
escalate
craft
v.
arena
使逐步上升
n.
politicking
ute
强壮的
手艺，艺术
n.
政治活动（尤指竞选和拉选票的活动）
n.
犹特人
n.
竞技场
demeanour
n.
行
为
enhancement
n.
增
加
engaging
a.
迷人的
138
flabby
a.
软弱的
meaty
a.
fleshy
a.
多肉的
丰满的
handiwork
n.
手工制品
testament
n.
证明
potency
n.
lacklustre
力量
n.
无生气的
curse
n.
诅咒
wince
n.
畏缩
feeble
a.
无力的
instinctive
a.
predator
stiff
本能的
n.
掠夺者
a.
inning
呆板的
n.
执政期
crunch
v.
擦过
fateful
a.
决定性的
assignation
flapping
n.
约会，会见
a.
Westie
n.
warrior
n.
挥动的
(原住在西德地区的)西德人
战士，勇士
Exercises
139
1. Make True or False Judgments.
(1) The author is not satisfied with Kevin Rudd’s handshake at the briefing.
(2) For politicians, the best time to shake hands is before their conversation.
(3) Because of the poor performance in a televised debate, Tony Abbott lost
his chance to win in the campaign.
(4) Many Treasury officials are not good at handshaking.
(5) Bob Hawke liked to keep eye contact when shaking hands with others.
2. Answer the questions.
(1) Why was Mark Latham beaten by John Howard in the 2004 contest?
(2) How could Julia Gillard attract Australians to vote for her?
(3) Why is an appropriate handshake a useful tool for holding on to power?
140
Chapter 4 Education and globalization of Australia’s higher education
4.1 Overview: A well-developed system with high quality
Australian schools, universities and colleges have a strong commitment to
equity, high academic standards and continuous improvement, with a focus on
excellence in teaching, research and student support.
4.1.1 The primary and secondary education
School attendance is compulsory throughout Australia between the ages of
six and fifteen. In total, most states and territories offer thirteen
years of schooling. Primary schooling in most States and Territories
begins with a preparatory or kindergarten year, followed by six or seven
primary grades, then a further five or six years to complete a full
secondary course of study. Most children study in government schools where
they enjoy free tuition at the primary and secondary levels.
4.1.2 The higher education (Tertiary education)
Australian education followed the British traditions. The universities of the
colonial period were founded as emblems of cultural and social progress. They
were the kind of institutions which self-governing colonies should have,
fostering learning among a social elite. They also functioned as a means of
141
spreading intellectual cultures and curricula. Australian universities were
profoundly influenced by the United Kingdom university system.
Until the 1950s, there was one university in each state capital city in Australia.
In Canberra in 1946, the Australian National University was founded as a
unique research institution to link the Australian and international research
communities. After the Second World War, the Commonwealth government
funded the university studies of returned service personnel. This was the
beginning of education for more Australians beyond the ranks of a wealthy
elite. Over the following decades, tertiary education became more vocationally
oriented and diverse. In the 1960s and 1970s, the federal government built
many new universities and these were given the names of famous Australians,
for example, Monash University, La Trobe University, Griffith University, etc. In
the 1980s and 1990s, newer universities have again taken regional names, for
example, the University of Southern Queensland, the University of Western
Sydney.
Modern Australian higher education falls into the following two
types. One is called VET, which is offered by institutions, private
training providers and industry in vocational education and training.
The VET system provides individuals with the skills required in a modern
economy and delivers competency-based training, which is career-oriented
142
and practical. There are about 1.7 million students in the publicly funded
VET system. Training is delivered by both public providers and private
providers.
The other type is universities and other higher education institutions which
offer programs leading to a bachelor’s degree and a range of postgraduate
degrees.The basic undergraduate course at most institutions is a Bachelor’s
degree of three or four years’ duration. The diploma or the advanced diploma
is also offered at some institutions. Most institutions offer postgraduate study.
One to two years of full-time study is required for a master’s degree and three
to five years for a Doctoral degree. Post-graduate diplomas and certificates are
offered in some applicable disciplines. The quality of education is of prime
importance for universities. Australia has set up the Australian University
Quality Agency, which assesses the adequacy of each institution’s quality
assurance processes for teaching, learning, research and management on a
five-year cycle. Australian universities have an international reputation for
excellence in teaching and research. The following table shown below
indicates the rankings of Australian universities in the world. The international
dimension of university teaching and research has increased over the last
decade in Australia. The role of Australian research and teaching in developing
important new ties with countries in the Asia-Pacific region has been
recognized (Xia Yuhe and Li Youwen，2008: 209-212).
143
The Group of Eight (Go8) is a group of eight Australian tertiary
institutions in Australia. These eight universities receive over 70% of
national competitive research grants and conduct over 60% of all
Australian university research. They have nurtured all of Australia’s
Nobel Prize winners educated in Australia, and produce over 60% of
Australian university publications. The Group of Eight universities excel
in giving their students world-class training and they are usually the
first choice of the majority of high-qualified Australian school
graduates and international students.
Member Universities of the Group of Eight (Go8)
University
Location
Foundation
The
Australia
National Uni
World Rank 2009
THES
World Rank 2008
THES
World Rank 2008
ARWU
Canberra, 1946
17
16
59
The Uni of
Sydney
Sydney,
South
1850
36
37
97
The University
of Melbourne
Melbourne,
Victoria, 1853
36
38
73
The University
of Adelaide
Adelaide, South
Australia, 1874
81
106
201-301
The
Uni
Queensland
Brisbane,
Queensland,
1909
41
43
101-151
Perth, Western
Australia, 1911
84
83
101-151
The Uni of New Sydney, New
South Wales
South Wales,1949
47
46
152-200
Monash
University
45
47
201-302
of
The University
of
Western
Australia
and
New
Wales,
Melbourne,
Victoria, 1958
144
ARWU=Academic Rankings of World Universities
THES=Time Higher Education World University Rankings
(http://www.arwu.org/)
4.1.3 International students
In Australia, education is no longer considered a public service, but
instead, a well-developed industry. The international education industry
is Australia’s largest service export sector. Australia is the leading
international student destination for many countries and ranks third in
English-speaking world behind the United States and Britain. The three
biggest sectors in terms of enrollment were higher education, vocational
education and training English-language intensive courses. Australia offers
international students a unique education, and a learning style that
encourages innovative, creative, independent thinking.
International students like to pursue their future studies in Australia. First, the
high standard of Australia’s education and training, its national qualifications
framework, its welcoming environment and diverse society appeal to young
people. Asia remains Australia’s main source of international students with
more than 75 per cent, but enrollment from the Middle East, South America
and Africa have grown strongly.
Secondly, the domestic employment situation is very intense, so students go to
145
Australia in order to expand their international outlook and grasp international
language and skills. Australian universities can help students get more
employment opportunities in the international labor markets.
Thirdly, most people in this world have an American dream. They regard
America as a place full of opportunities. But with the development of Australia,
especially after the 9﹒11 attack, many young people place Australia as their
first choice to invest their future development. The Australian dream becomes
hot, especially after the American attacks on September 11, 2001. People
often consider safety as a key factor when they are going to study abroad.
Political stability makes Australia an attractive place to live, study and
work .Australia is one of the few nations in the world to have enjoyed an
unbroken history of democracy and political stability.
Fourthly, tuition fees and the cost of housing, food, transportation and
entertainment are considerably lower in Australia than in most other countries
offering a high standard of education. This low cost structure, combined with a
high standard of living, is one of the reasons why Australia is the education
destination of choice for tens of thousands of overseas students annually.
Lastly, more than a quarter of all Australian citizens were born overseas,
having roots in more than 120 cultures. Cultural diversity is a part of everyday
146
life, and nowhere are the fruits of multiculturalism more evident than in
Australia’s schools, colleges, research institutions and universities. As a result,
students are enriched by this cultural diversity, and they can easily find people
from the same place .They may have a cultural identity and a sense of
belonging.
Australia has the safest, happiest and most tolerant environment for
international students in the world today. Australia’s education system is
founded on diversity, personal freedom and shared responsibility for the
advancement of knowledge and truth.
New words
commitment
n.
承
诺
schooling
tertiary
n.
学校教育
a.
emblem
(中等教育之后的)高等教育的，大学教育的
n.
象
征
curricula
fund
n.
课程
v.
personnel
vocationally
投资
n.
全体人员
ad. .
职业上地
147
diploma
n.
certificate
assess
学位证书
n.
证书
v.
adequacy
评定
n.
足
assurance
n.
确信
dimension
n.
维度，方面
够
grant
n.
nurture
excel
sector
拨款
v.
养育
v.
优于，胜过
n.
部分;部门
Exercises
1. Explain terms.
(1) the Group of Eight (Go8) (2)
the VET system
2. Answer questions.
(1) What are main features of universities in the colonial period?
(2) What are the two types of modern Australian higher education?
(3) Why is Australia the leading international student destination in many
countries?
148
3. Questions for further consideration.
(1) What are the effects of globalization on higher education?
(2) What has Australia benefited from the higher education policies?
(3) Explain why Australian education is a well-developed industry?
(4) What difficulties are indigenous students facing?
4.2 Reading passage: Globalization and Australia’s higher education by Hu
Zhuanglin ①
(①Hu Zhuanglin: linguist; Emeritus Professor of Peking University; Director of
Peking University Australian Studies Center, Beijing, China. “Globalization
and Australia’s higher education” by Hu Zhuanglin. 2010. Language Learning
and New Technologies [M]. Beijing: Peking University Press. pp. 4-15)
Paths toward globalization in higher education
Since both the commonwealth government and the university leaders joined
hands to meet the challenges of globalization, we would like to find out in what
directions and by what approaches they will guide the Australian universities to
move. Here are some of the paths pointed out by the government and the
university leaders and stepped on by many universities.
Decentralization and Liberalization
The tradition of Australian universities is to operate in an environment
149
characterized by a substantial degree of centralized government planning.
This was done by the Commonwealth government’s dominance over
institutional funding, the setting of student load targets, control of tuition
charges, and through the morass of regulatory controls utilized to influence the
system in direct and indirect ways. As a result, Australian universities have
become too much like government agencies, and universities encounter
political intrusion, a lack of coordination, and a disincentive for innovation.
To meet the challenge of globalization, there is a clear intention on the part of
the Australian government to create a competitive and commercialized higher
education system. Professionals have also begun to accept the view that
universities and other higher education institutions should be independent
bodies so as to maintain the power to make their own decisions. This can be
exemplified by the Melbourne U and Monash U’s participation in the
Universities 21 (1) and Melbourne U’s decision to set up a private university.
Marketisation
While higher education professionals were active in pushing toward
massification, public funding has declined significantly for Australia’s 38
universities. A decade ago most institutions received over 90 percent of their
funding from the federal government; today no university receives more than
50 percent from the federal government. In Margison’s words (2), in the last
25 years public national investment in Australian higher education has
150
dropped from 1.5% to 0.8% of GDP despite a doubling of student numbers.
To fill in the gap, education has now been seen as a sort of knowledge
economy. Private funding has grown extraordinarily, in the form of charges to
domestic students, and from international fee-paying students from whom
annual revenues are now at one fifth the level of public investment. These
revenues have become crucial to the financial survival of Australian
universities, now positioned (3) by government as self-managing institutions
responsible for their own economy and quality. Marginson gave his bitter
comment like this: government has achieved the goals of fiscal reductions
and export growth at the price of Australia’s larger capacity as a global
knowledge economy (4).
According to Pick’s analysis (5), in terms of student fees, the government’s
macro-level policy is to withdraw public funding and push universities down a
path towards privatization, and at the micro-level regulation is to limit the
ability of universities to expand their domestic sources of income. This means
the universities’ ability to charge higher fees for high-demand courses is
limited.
Under the knowledge economy, in order to enroll more students, universities
and teachers have to provide courses to cope with the needs of the students
as learners are customers rather than participants. Nevertheless, student need
is often influenced by relatively short-perceptions of the ‘marketability’ of skills.
151
Correspondingly, the teachers have changed their role as classroom
managers, whose chief role is to legitimate a knowledge economy through
mandated subject matter (6) and educational practices.
Internationalization
In the previous section, we already touched upon (7) the topic how Australian
universities managed to cover their budget gap by increasing their intake of
international students, or to speak more exactly, international fee-paying
students. The result has been an extraordinarily rapid growth in international
student numbers, from 10,000 to a quarter of a million in less than two
decades. The export industry is now worth $9.5 billion a year. Education is the
fourth largest export industry in the nation after coal, iron ore and tourism.
Compared with other countries, Australia is not the leading exporter of
education, taking into account the 2003 figures for the USA (28 per cent of
cross-border tertiary students), the UK (12 per cent), Germany (11 per cent),
France (10 per cent), Australia (9 per cent) and Japan (4 per cent) However,
Australia’s share of percentage exerts a much greater domestic impact than
the USA’s share of the global market , because Australia has only 20 million
people, but in cross-border tertiary study (8) constituted 18.7 per cent of its
tertiary enrolments, the highest level recorded for any country.
In spite of this, the revenues from international education have not substituted
152
for the lost public funding, being largely absorbed in the costs of raising those
revenues or in other corporate operations (part-time teaching in Business,
recruitment, marketing, off-shore offices, finance and risk management, quality
assurance etc.).
Australia’s rise in internationalization is due to the following factors: (1) there
was growing demand for cross-border education in the Asia-Pacific, and of the
developed English-language higher education systems Australia was closely
located and cheaper than the USA and UK; (2) deregulation and business
techniques provided necessary conditions for growth; and (3) the government
used reductions in its own funding to install dependence on market revenues
and position university leaders as the drivers of the business model and export
objective. By 2002 public funding per student was at half the level of the mid
1980s.
Just as there is a concentration of students from one source country (9), there
is also a concentration in a single field of study, that of management and
commerce.
Australia’s success in internationalization can be accounted for by 4
reasons: (1) the international education industry in Australia has benefited
from an early and thoroughgoing commercialization. (2) Australian higher
education has enjoyed a generic national reputation for good quality higher
153
education. (3) Australia has location, geographical, and climatic
advantages. (4) Australian tuition fees were on the whole lower than fees in
North America and the UK.
In addition to Australia’s taking increasing number of international full-fee
paying students, the nature of internationalization can also be seen from
another perceptive, that is, Australia has her own needs to go international. In
the era of globalization, growing numbers of Australian students need to be
prepared for life and work in an increasingly globalized world. In the era of
globalization, Australia has found that cultures and societies of Asia are
diverse and unfamiliar to many Australians. The Australian students need to be
equipped with a sophisticated knowledge of Australia’s neighbors. In the
meantime, many International students also feel the need to learn courses
concerning the diverse cultures and societies of the region in which Australia is
situated.
Issues related to globalization
When people are moving along the paths toward globalization, it doesn’t mean
that all the explorers or practitioners share the same view. Consequently, we
hear various, sometimes conflicting voices from the rank. Here are some of
them:
Quality in education
154
With the decline of state-provided finances and the encouragement on the part
of the State to marry (10) education and industry, the high ideal long held by
higher education tends to fade away (11).
There are other reasons to add to this degeneration. For example, in order to
accept more overseas students, the applicants are often favored with low entry
requirements. The same principle has also been applied to Australian students
who can be admitted to courses as full-fee paying students
To cope with the shortage of professionals as a result of the breakdown of the
traditional tenure system (12), the voluntary collaborative arrangements are
encouraged. Contrary to one’s expectation, they are often under-resourced,
and place excessive demands on students and teaching staff who are required
to travel between campuses, negotiate their way through complex
administrative arrangements etc. Although a small number of universities
agreed to the scheme and claimed that there will be no change to the quality of
their outstanding student profile (13), more professionals have still been
worrying about the consequence that ultimately more able students will lose
their places to those less able but more affluent.
Last, but not least, student demand is often strongly influenced by relatively
short-term perceptions of the “marketability” of skills, and may not always
match the long-term needs of the society and economy. At the same time,
there is little or no serious debate about the nature of the undergraduate
155
curriculum. There is also considerable confusion about the purposes and
structure of the master’s degree. The reason why curriculum is not being
discussed is that most of the energy has been focused on either meeting new
governmental requirements or creating new markets to generate capital.
Research
There are established areas of research strength such as astrophysics,
philosophy, and parts of agriculture and the life sciences. Two Australians won
the 2005 Nobel Prize for Medicine, Barry Marshall (14) and Robin Warren (15).
In spite of this, Australia’s global position in research is not as strong as in
commercial teaching. For instance, Australia has 14 (2.8 per cent) of the top
500 research universities, exceeding its share of worldwide economic capacity
(1.7 per cent). Yet, in the top 100 it is weaker than the other English-speaking
nations and parts of Western Europe and its comparative performance may
have declined. For another thing, no university founded in 1987-1990 has built
research to the point of entering the world’s top 500; and three established as
research universities prior to 1987 are outside the top 500.
Although in the merged Australian university system established in 1987-1990
universities shared a common mission, they were differentiated in status,
resources and capacities. This results into the polarization between selective
research-intensive institutions and volume-building teaching institutions. All
156
institutions apart from the ANU, regardless of their prestige or role in research,
were locked into a volume-building trajectory (16) in the global market to
supplement declining public funding. Money went to the universities in the
‘Group of Eight’ or ‘G8’; 21 per cent to 11 other universities created before
1975 (Tasmania, Macquarie, New England, Newcastle, Wollongong, La Trobe,
Deakin, James Cook, Griffith, Flinders, Murdoch); and only 15 per cent to the
20 universities designated after 1985.
Institutional differentiation
At the early stage of reform, one witnessed the transformation of Australian
Higher Education from a binary system to a unitary system. Despite an overall
high degree of homogeneity amongst academics, Haiman reported that those
in pre-1987 universities, especially G8 universities, are better qualified, have
appreciably better publication records, spend more time on research and
writing, and show more interest in research than academics in post-1987
universities. Pre-1987 universities are more likely than others to have
academic organizational units headed by professors and associate professors.
Academics in pre-1987 universities have distinctively different views with
regard to research funding and the place of research, as well as about
academic standards and recent expansion in student enrolments. In contrast,
those post-1987 universities have pockets of research strength. Yet, these
small and relatively small proportions of academics produce the bulk of
research output.
157
Monitoring and evaluation
Tierney (17) and McInnis（18）hold the view that government needs to loosen
its hold on monitoring and evaluation and develop an incentive-based model.
For the moment, Australian tertiary education is in danger of being mired in a
system of checks and balances that depresses the entrepreneurial spirit. This
is especially so when the Internet and web-based learning have facilitated
changes in teaching. One can learn not only in the classroom and through
one’s teacher, but also out of class. Therefore, much research has been done
on how to evaluate good teaching; and breakthroughs are happening with
regard to the measurement of learning. If Australia is to continue to offer an
effective system of tertiary education in a global environment, the problems
demand timely clever solutions. In contrast, rigidity is a problem for Australia in
the global economy as higher education has become a major export and is
crucial to the national economy.
Too much monitoring and evaluation will also discourage experimentation and
innovation, which, on the contrary are important to Australian universities,
which need to become more innovative because their environment is no longer
stable. Therefore, a system that encourages creative activity is not one that
rewards all institutions similarly and sets mandates and targets with regard to
enrollments, tuition funding, and productive activities.
158
Notes:
(1) the Universities 21: Universities 21 is an international network of 23 leading
research-intensive universities in fifteen countries. Collectively, its
members enroll over 700,000 students, employ over 145,000 staff and
have approaching 2.5 million alumni.
(2) Margison (Simon Marginson): a Professor of Higher Education in the
Centre for the Study of Higher Education at the University of Melbourne.
(3) position: v. arrange, set up.
(4) a knowledge economy: one in which the generation and exploitation of
knowledge play the predominant part in the creation of wealth.
(5) Pick (David Pick):
Associate Professor in Management - Curtin Business
School, Australia.
(6) subject matter: what something is about.
(7) touch upon：to pertain to; concern.
(8) cross-border tertiary study: defined by the United Nations Educational,
Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) as higher education that
takes place in situations where the teacher, student, programme,
institution/provider or course materials cross national jurisdictional borders
(9) one source country: 客源国.投资来源国。
(10) marry education and industry: to unite in a close, usually permanent way.
(11) fade away: disappear gradually.
159
(12) tenure system: granted the right not to be fired without cause after an
initial probationary period. Tenure systems are usually justified by the
claim that they provide academic freedom, by preventing instructors from
being fired for openly disagreeing with authorities or popular opinion.
(13) student profile：a resume for a student.
(14) Barry Marshall: an Australian physician, Nobel Prize laureate in
Physiology or Medicine, and Professor of Clinical Microbiology at the
University of Western Australia.
(15) Robin Warren: an Australian pathologist.
(16) a volume-building trajectory: a plan to increase volume.
(17) Tierney William G.: is an American scholar of higher education.
(18) McInnis Craig: a professor in the Centre for the Study of Higher Education
in University of Melbourne.
New words
decentralization
n.
liberalisation = liberalization
substantial
a.
dominance
n.
非集权化，权力下放，权力分散
n.
自由主义化
实质的
支
配
institutional
setting
a.
制度上的
n.
安排
160
charge
n.
费用掌管
morass
n.
困
境
regulatory
utilize
a.
管理的
v.
使用
intrusion
n.
闯入
coordination
n.
协调
disincentive
n.
抑制因素
innovation
n.
professional
创新
n.
exemplify
专业人员
v.
例证
marketisation
n.
市场化(指使变成自由市场经济)
massification
n.
大众化
revenue
n.
position
v.
fiscal
税收
安置
a.
mandate
财政的
v.
命
令
intake
n.
corporate
吸收
a.
deregulation
thoroughgoing
共同的，全体的
n.
违反规定
a.
完全的，彻底的
161
tenure
n.
任期
collaborative
a.
negotiate
v.
ultimately
ad.
affluent
合作的
商议
基本上
a.
丰富的
astrophysics
n.
polarization
trajectory
天体物理学
n.
两极分化
n.
轨道，轨线
differentiation
n.
区别
binary
a.
二元的
unitary
a.
单一的
homogeneity
academic
n.
同种
n.
学
者
appreciably
proportion
output
rigidity
明显地
n.
比例
n.
monitoring
mire
ad.
出产
n.
检验
v.
陷入困境
n.
experimentation
僵化
n.
试验
162
Exercises
1. Make True or False judgments.
(1) Australian universities are independent bodies and they have the right to
make their own decisions and deal with their own university affairs.
(2) Higher education in Australia is popular rather than the privilege of the
minority.
(3) Australian experience in internationalization depends only on deregulation
and business techniques.
(4) Australians do not think that international education is an industry.
(5) The disadvantage of over-monitoring and evaluation will discourage
innovation and creativity, while that advantage will remind that universities
that they are not a stable ivory tower: academic competitions are
necessary.
2. Answer questions.
(1) Why is marketisation Australia’s choice?
(2) Why is internationalization important to Australia?
(3) Why does the quality of education become the concern with the
marketisation of Australian higher education?
163
164
Chapter 5 Mass media and film industry
5.1 Overview: Vigorous development and free expression
Australia’s news and entertainment media have a robust tradition of free
expression and a vigorous analysis of public policy. Strong competition
exists in the newspaper, radio and television industries. Media
entrepreneurs have a global perspective, and professional skills are
world-class. Five words tend to be used to describe today’s Australian mass
media as open, free, competitive, diverse and commercial.
5.1.1 Newspaper
The first real newspaper in Australia was the Sydney Gazette. It appeared in
1803, only 15 years after the first British settlement. After that, there came the
first regular published daily, the Sydney Morning Herald. It appeared in 1840,
37 years after the Sydney Gazette. It is from these two newspapers that the
Australian newspaper industry began to develop itself.
During 1848-1886, the Australian newspaper enjoyed a boom of diversification
throughout the whole country. In this period, four big companies were founded,
namely Herald and Weekly Times, Fairfax, Australian Consolidated Press and
the News Corporation. And 48 kinds of newspapers were published. From this
165
time, the newspaper industry started to develop steadily. Nowadays, there are
16 metropolitan dailies, with another 35 published in provincial cities or towns
Nowadays, The Australian and The Australian Financial Review have become
the most famous and successful newspaper publications in Australia. The two
newspapers have built and supported the spirit of many Australians.
5.1.1.1 The Australian
The Australian was first published by News Limited in 1964. It’s a kind of
broadsheet newspaper, which is published from Monday through Saturday. On
Saturday it’s called The Weekend Australian. It has become the biggest-selling
national newspaper in the country, which can be read in Sydney, Melbourne,
Brisbane, Adelaide, Hobart and Darwin.The newspaper devotes attention to
information technology and mining industries. The Australian has run many
articles
critical
of
science
and
politics
of
climate
change
(http://www.theaustralian.com.au/).
5.1.1.2 The Australian Financial Review
The Australian Financial Review is the leading business newspaper in
Australia which is published every day from Monday through Saturday by the
media company Fairfax Media. In August 1951 The Australian Financial
Review was started as a weekly newspaper. In October 1961 it became
166
bi-weekly and became a daily publication in 1963. Since the 1970s, the
Australian Financial Review has been associated with economic liberalism in
Australia, driving a consistent editorial line favoring small government,
deregulation,
privatization,
lower
taxes
and
trade
liberalization
(http://www.afr.com/).
5.1.2 Television
Television began in Australia in 1959 and colour television transmission
was introduced in all the capital cities beginning on March 1, 1957.
All television stations are required to use a certain amount of
Australian produced materials, and the amount of broadcasting time for
commercial advertisements is also limited to a certain degree. Therefore
most TV programs in Australia usually have a time allocation for locally
based drama, comedy, news, and sports programs. The well-known television
stations are the Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC) and Special
Broadcasting Service (SBS).
5.1.2.1 The Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC)
The Australian Broadcasting Corporation, commonly referred to as ABC, is
Australia's national public broadcaster. The corporation provides television,
radio, online and mobile services throughout metropolitan and regional
Australia, as well as overseas through the Australia Network and Radio
167
Australia. Founded in 1929, it was a state-owned corporation.
In 1975, color television was introduced in Australia, and within a decade, ABC
had moved into satellite broadcasting, greatly enhancing its ability to distribute
content nationally. The ABC Multimedia Unit was established in July, 1995, to
manage the new ABC website (launched in August). Funding was allocated
later that year specifically for online content, as opposed to reliance on funding
for television and radio content. The first online election coverage was put
together in 1996, and included news, electorate maps, candidate information
and live results.
International
television
service
Australia
Television
International
was
established in 1993, while at the same time Radio Australia increased its
international reach. Reducing funding in 1997 for Radio Australia resulted in
staff and programming cuts. At the same time, ABC's Multimedia division was
renamed ‘ABC New Media', becoming an output division of ABC alongside
Television and Radio. Legislation allowed the ABC to provide ‘multichannels' additional, digital-only, television services managed by the New Media division.
Soon after the introduction of digital television in 2001, Fly TV and the ABC
Kids Channel launched, showing a mix of programming aimed at teenagers
and children.
The ABC operates 46 local radio stations, in addition to four national networks
and international service Radio Australia. In addition, DiG Radio launched on
168
digital platforms in 2002, currently offering three separate stations. Within
Australia, ABC receives the bulk of funding for television and shows first-run
comedy,
drama,
documentaries,
and
news
and
current
affairs
(http://www.abc.net.au/).
5.1.2.2 The Special Broadcasting Service (SBS)
The Special Broadcasting Service (SBS) is a non-commercial
multilingual radio and multicultural television service. It is one of two
government-funded Australian public broadcasting radio and television
networks. The stated purpose of SBS is to provide multilingual and
multicultural radio and television services that inform, educate and
entertain all Australians and, in doing so, reflect Australia's
multicultural society.
SBS Radio broadcasts in 68 languages in all Australian states, producing an
estimated 13,500 hours of Australian programming for its two frequencies in
Sydney and Melbourne as well as its national network. Much like SBS TV, SBS
radio is funded by a mix of government grants, paid-for government
information campaigns and commercial advertising.
SBS TV is available nationally through a network of terrestrial transmitters and
devotes a significant part of its morning television schedule to news bulletins in
languages other than English as well as showing many subtitled,
foreign-language films. Its own news and current affairs aim to have a higher
169
concentration on international affairs. It also shows many documentaries and
current-affairs programs, while its sports coverage has a strong focus on
international sports, primarily football (soccer) and cycling.
SBS has been one of the most progressive networks with regard to digital
broadcasting. In 2008, SBS had 4 digital services
Besides, ABC and SBS, there are three other free commercial television
stations. One is The Seven Network (commonly known as Channel Seven or
simply Seven) which is an Australian television network owned by the Seven
Media Group. Seven is currently the highest rated television network in
Australia. The second one is Network Ten, or Channel Ten, and is one of
Australia's three major commercial television networks. Ten consistently rates
third amongst all channels in Australia's five largest cities, behind the Seven
Network and Nine Network. The last one is The Nine Network, or Channel
Nine, which is an Australian television network (http://www.sbs.com.au/).
5.1.3 Film industry
Australian film has a long history. The Australian film industry has a reputation
for innovation and quality, and it is attracting growing international acclaim.
The film industry in Australia had two booms.
170
The first boom in Australian film occurred in the 1910s. After the establishment
of the Commonwealth, 1910 saw 4 narrative films released, then 51 in 1911,
30 in 1912, and 17 in 1913, and back to 4 in 1914, at the beginning of World
War I. While these numbers may seem small, Australia was one of the most
prolific film-producing countries at the time.
The second boom in Australian film was in the period of the 1970s and
1980s.During the 1970s, government funding for Australian filmmakers was
increased. The South Australian Film Corporation was established in 1972 to
promote and produce films, while the Australian Film Commission was created
in 1975 to fund and produce internationally competitive films.
A generation of directors and actors emerged who told distinctively Australian
stories. Films such as Picnic at Hanging Rock (Peter Weir, 1975) and Sunday
Too Far Away (Ken Hannam, 1975) made an impact on the international arena.
The 1970s and 80s are regarded by many as a 'golden age' of Australian
cinema, with many successful films, from the dark science fiction of Mad Max
(George Miller, 1979) to the romantic comedy of Crocodile Dundee (Peter
Faiman, 1986), a film that defined Australia in the eyes of many foreigners
(Andrew Pike & Ross Cooper, 1998: 1-49).
Australia’s film and television practitioners are among the best in the world,
highlighted
by
recent
international
171
recognition
for
their
skills
and
achievements.More and more successful actors, directors, producers,
costume designers, cinematographers and animators moved on to Hollywood.
Successful films are often taken as evidence that a mature .sophisticated
Australian culture has arrived (David Cater, 2006: 190). On the other hand,
Australian cinema plays a major role in creating images of national identity. It
functions both as popular culture and as a legitimate cultural expression, an art
form (Tony Bennett and David Carter, 2001).
New words
robust
a.
gazette
herald
健康的
n.
报纸
n.
先驱报
metropolitan
provincial
a.
a.
地方性的，省的
privatization
n.
transmission
n.
allocation
a.
cut
n.
私有化
播送
n.
corporation
live
大都市的
documentary
分配
n.
团体机构
实况转播的
砍掉
n.
纪录
片
172
frequency
bulletin
n.
n.
subtitled
新闻公告
a.
cycling
flavor
频率
带有字幕的
n.
自行车比赛
n.
滋味
prolific
a.
丰富的
fiction
n.
小说
costume
n.
戏
装
cinematographer
animator
acclaim
电影摄影师
n.
动画设计者
n.
highlight
amass
n.
喝彩
v.
强调
v.
积累，积聚
Exercises
1. Explain terms.
(1) The Australian
(2) The Australian Financial Review
(3) ABC (Australian Broadcasting Corporation)
(4) SBS (Special Broadcasting Service)
173
2. Answer questions.
(1) What are the two famous newspapers in Australia?
(2) What are the two important television stations in Australia?
(3) What are the two film booms in Australia?
3. Questions for further consideration.
(1) What are the main characteristics of Australian mass media?
(2) Did the advent of television change the nature of Australian politics?
(3) What does television in Australia look like today?
(4) Is Australian television really Australian?
(5) In what ways have Australian films reflected Australia’s multicultural
society?
(6) How have landscape, history, and identity figured in Australian films?
5.2 Reading passage: Creative nation: approaching Australian cinema and
cultural studies by Amit Sarwal and Reema Sarwal ①
(① Amit Sarwal: Assistant Professor at the Department of English, Rajdhani
College, University of Delhi, India. Reema Sarwal: Lecturer at Miranda House,
University of Delhi, India. “Creative nation: approaching Australian cinema and
cultural studies” by Amit Sarwal and Reema Sarwal. 2009. Creative Nation:
Australian Cinema and Cultural Studies Reader [M]. New Delhi: Sports and
Spiritual Science Publication. pp. xxvi-xlix.)
174
Introduction
It has often been said that Australia has no history, let alone a mythology.
There has been a constant struggle over the representation, construction and
reconstruction of “Australia”. In the eyes of the world it is a new migrant nation
or modern nation created by moving several million people across the world,
with the majority of people from British origins along with a great hodge-podge
of world cultures (1) (over 100 nationalities), a Great South Land (2), Wide
Brown Land (3), a Cultural Desert, a Godforsaken Land (4), Land of the Fair
Go (5), Antipodes (6)or just Down Under (7). These fascinating, contradictory
and diverse clichés, images, and stereotypes regarding Australia make one
wonder about what to expect from its films-much needed to enhance the social
unity of an underpopulated continent(8). Well, it offers everything ranging from
Mad Max(1979)(9) to Crocodile Dundee(1986)(10); They’re a Weird
Mob(1966)(11) to Rabbit-Proof Fence(2002)(12); The Tracker(2002)(13) to
Jammin’ in the Middle E(2005)(14); The Man from Snowy River(1982)(15) to
Happy Feet(2007)(16). The urban woman who finds herself at a station in the
outback and wants to be a part of it unlike the men who wish to tame it in We of
the Never Never (1982)(17), the old-fashioned picture showman travelling
across the Australian landscape on a horse-cart, struggling against the new
tide of talking films in The Picture Show Man(1977)(18), and the unusual comic
patriarch of The Castle(1977)(19) fighting the authorities to protect his dream
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house are just some of the striking examples of the delicate portraiture of
human sensibilities that stick in our memory.
The reason to study Australian literature, cinema and culture may vary. Some
people have visited Australia as tourists(both cultural and academic), some
have seen or learnt about Australia from madia images and programmes such
as those on the Discovery (20) or National Geographic channels (21), some
have been lucky enough to watch and recognize an Australian film on
television. The choice to study, engage or teach Australia is related to a highly
personal investment. Reasons apart (22), any journey exploring Australian
films is remarkably exciting, enjoyable and rewarding. The Australian film
industry, as a social, economic and cultural institution, started with bushranger
films and continued to produce hits (23) based on early Australian
types-convicts, bushrangers and swagmen. Later, as the film production and
technology grew in Australia, filmmakers not only adapted the conventional
Hollywood forms but also changed to more serious, complex and diverse
issues like those of suburbia, politics, societal idiosyncrasies, new ideologies
and Australianness while discovering new ways exploring the old concerns
with the outback, the bush and the unique Australian nature. It is a cinema
which constructs and demolishes national myths at the same time-upholding
the Australian dream of a family house in The Castle and They’re a Weird Mob
and shattering the myth of the Aborigines as belonging solely to the outback
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and not sharing any urban sensibilities in films as varied as Crocodile Dundee,
The Fringe Dwellers (1986) (24), and Black Talk (2002) (25). In fact, Australian
identity today, particularly in tourism industry and cultural policies, is
increasingly identified in terms of Aboriginal culture and cultural diversity
presented within the boundaries of the modern city. The most reverberating
national myths in Australia are the myths of identity such as the
interconnection between landscape and character, the quest for home, and
definitions of Australianness and these are all pervasive in both Australian
cinema and culture, be it the film genres of comedy, tragedy, horror, drama,
humor, documentary and so on or cultural expressions of music, theatre, mass
art, photography, multiculturalism, educational institutes, etc (26).
Film policy in Australia: “Combine” to “creative nation”
Australian cinema can be seen as part of an expanding chain of national
cinemas, contributing to the global film industry in terms of the people, places
and stories involved. It has struggled against “Hollywoodization” just like most
film industries worldwide. But this dominance or hegemony of Hollywood over
Australian cinema or Australians was a result, as put by O’Regan (1989) (27),
of “overexposure” during the World Wars, although the more significant reason
is traced elsewhere: it was around World War I that a large number of
Australian production houses (28) merged to form the monopolistic
Australasian Film-a “Combine” looking after or rather monopolizing production
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and distribution (working against the “fair go” practice promoted by Australian
government). By the time of World War II American interest in Australian films
and cinemas resulted in US studios introducing a new contract system making
them the undisputed rulers of the Australian screen exercising a defacto
control (29). This made the field much more competitive, risky, costly and a
not-so-profitable affair for the Australian producers and distributors. In order to
ease these challenges and dominance of monopolistic combines or studios,
the Australian government has since then played a major role in establishing
and promoting its local creative and cultural industries throughout the world by
its various initiatives(censorship, regulations, govt. inquiries/commissions (30),
quotas (31), tax relief, funding agencies, etc.) and cultural and media policies.
The underlying principle of such policies in the development and evolution of
Australian cinema being:
A vibrant film and television production sector helps promote a more
inquisitive, imaginative and thoughtful Australian society through the
realization of Australian stories on screen. It also provides a medium through
which Australia’s creative talents are able to reach the world.
In 1927, a Royal Commission (32) was established just to investigate the
influence of Hollywood films over Australia, but the Commission was equally
concerned by the decline of the number of British films screened in Australia. It
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is prime minister Gorton (33) who is credited with starting the film industry in
Australia with his initiative in 1969 and by 1975, the concern for Australian
culture and creative arts as assessed by the Interim Board of the AFC (34) led
to a government interest at the level of film policy according to the fact which
Australian film and creative talent were required to play an important role in the
cultural formation of Australian values. This phase of culture romance (35) was
marked by the production of some truly Australian films like Picnic at Hanging
Rock (1975) (36), Newsfront (1978) (37), My Brilliant Career (1979) (38) and
Gallipoli (1982) (39).
The Australian cinema industry (and to some extent even cultural industry) is
policy led and therefore according to Jock Given (1995) (40):
Every living Australian prime minister has run a government that did
something for Australian film. Gorton’s started federal assistance to the
industry, Whitlam (41)’s increased it and reorganized it, Fraser (42) ’s
introduced 10BA (43), Hawke (44)’s
established the Film Finance
Corporation (45). Keating (46) ’ s government
has delivered Creative
Nation (47), an expensive statement of cultural policy announced in October,
1994.
But it is only post-1994 that the promotion of Australian film has increasingly
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become a core element of Australia’s cultural policies. In October 1994, the
then prime minister, Paul Keating, launched the Commonwealth Cultural
Policy and stated that,“Our post-colonial status guaranteed that there would be
a lot of questions about who we are, what level of culture we might reasonably
aspire to (48).” Already, in July 1992, the Commonwealth Government had
appointed a panel of eminent Australians to advise on the formulation of a
Commonwealth cultural policy. A preamble to the cultural policy was prepared
by the Panel. Historically, this is a major step by any Commonwealth of
Australia government, as this, Creative Nation: Commonwealth Cultural Policy
(1994), was a national cultural policy (to which we owe (49) the title of our
book). The definitive endeavor of this cultural policy was to enrich Australian
life by spreading awareness about Australian culture and promoting the
expression of Australia’s cultural identity. With a cultural policy in place (50),
Australian government recognized its responsibility to foster and preserve a
cultural environment, heritage, identity, and the means of self-expression and
creativity. To achieve this, assistance to the film industry was provided through
direct funding to the Australian Film Commission (AFC) (51), the Australian
Film, Television and Radio School (AFTRS) (52), the Film Finance Corporation
(FFC) (53), Film Australia (FA), (54) and the Australian Children’s Television
Foundation (ACTF) (55), a continuous process as many of these agencies
were established much earlier (some with different names).
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Filmmaking in Australia: (inter)National Film Culture
Filmmaking in Australia, like all over the world, is an unpredictable and big
business. And, in spite of this influential role of the Australian government in
shaping the national cinema, there is relative unawareness about Australian
cinema and its place in the Cinemas of the World (56) or the international film
culture. Ben Goldsmith (57) argues in his article in this book that the cinematic
origins of the nation have ensured that film in Australia can never simply be
approached as entertainment. For a better understanding of Australian cinema
and its artistic, narrative and technical merits, it is very important to pay due
attention to the kinds of cultural values, identities and myths it nurtures.
Australian cinema has been divided among three eras to simplify
discussion-the
Silent
Era
(1896-1926),
the
New
Wave
(or
revival)
(1970s-1980s), and the Contemporary Australian cinema (1990s-Present).
There is another important period, normally called “the Interval” (1930s-1960s),
which is often painted in orthodox histories as one where nothing happened,
and while very few feature films were made in this period, there was an
industry working in the field of documentaries and advertising. In fact, some
very important films were made in this era, e.g. Raymond Longford’s The
Sentimental Bloke (1932) (58), Charles Chauvell’s Jedda (1955) (59), and
John Heyer’s famous documentary The Back of Beyond (1954) (60).
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The earliest surviving Australian motion picture was shot in 1896 by Walter
Barnett(61) and Frenchman Marius Sestier (62), depicting the running of the
nation’s premier horse race, The Melbourne Cup (63). But the earliest known
feature length narrative film in Australia, and also in the world, was the
Australian production The Story of the Kelly Gang (1906) (64)-a fully integrated,
secular, fictional narrative. Further, one of the world’s first film studios, The
Limelight Department (65) was operated by The Salvation Army (66) in
Melbourne, between 1891 and 1910. The language, imagery and style used in
these earlier films were more English oriented. As mentioned earlier, it was
only during and after World War II that the American influences on Australian
culture intensified. There was a huge influx of Americans, American culture
and American products into Australia. The US investors and financers gained
control of movie distribution and exhibition and soon monopolized the business
by screening mostly American films. This dominance caused the demise of a
booming Australian film industry and left the regional talent and film industry
personnel to choose between two options for survival. The first, according to
Neale (1981) (67), was the possibility of imitation or attempting to copy or
adapt the conventional Hollywood forms, genres and styles to remain in
business. The second alternative was to put together films that were
dramatically different, stressing the unique qualities or genres peculiar to that
nation’s. After the 1930s it was mostly the second alternative that was
exercised while the earlier industry was mostly commercial and therefore more
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imitative, e.g., films by Ken G. Hall (68) had a kind of Hollywood flavor
(although often, like in The Squatter’s Daughter (1933) (69) there were strong
Australian landscapes and the main character sets up a type of bush heroine).
Finally, it was during the 1970s, the “golden age” (70) or revival or the
renaissance of Australian cinema that the Australian government, to compete
internationally and to rid Australia of American and to some degree even
British influences, increased the funding for Australian filmmakers through the
establishment of Australian Film Commission(AFC). This New Wave cinema
helped in the reemergence of the Australian film industry but relied heavily on
the wholesome period dramas and therefore was also dubbed as the “AFC
Genre” (71). Successful film such as, Walkabout (1971) (72), Sunday Too Far
Away (1975) (73), The Chant of Jimmie Blacksmith (1978) (74), Mad Max,
Crocodile Dundee, Shine (1996) (75), made an international impact and
helped in foregrounding Australian talent and themes, especially in Hollywood.
This is the “boom-bust-boom cycle” of Australian cinema spanning the eighty
years of the twentieth century. However, the lack of promotional strategies on
the part of Australian production houses as well as distribution of Australian
films through Hollywood based studios or American owned distribution houses
make it hard, especially for the non-Australian audiences, to identify their
Australian origins so that the films are more often than not mistaken to be
Hollywood productions. This in turn makes non-Australians believe that there
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are no Australian films at the international box-office (76) and therefore they
must be lacking in artistic quality. One of the main aims of this book is to help
international audiences understand that there are certain elements of
Australian films that can be immediately recognized(without depending on a
knowledge of the studios to identify Australian films) Lisa French (77), for
example, outlines some of the major tropes like the lost child and the
landscape traditions in Australian cinema while Felicity Collins (78)and
Katherine Bode (79)discuss the characteristic Australian larrikin ockers and
Aussie battlers as markers of Australian national identity in their chapters
respectively.
A significant development in Australian national cinema is the shift from purely
Anglo-centric to multicultural or hybridized forms and the focus on race and
ethnic relations so that it has moved from the outback to suburbia and into the
inner city-see films like The Outback （80）or Wake in Fright (1971) (81) , Baz
Luhrmann’s Strictly Ballroom (1993) (82) , Muriel’s Wedding (1994) (83) , Clara
Law’s Floating Life (1996) (84) , or David Caesar’s Idiot Box (1996) (85). It has
also established a fairly long list of internationally-recognized films that have
scored worldwide box-office successes. Apart from those mentioned
previously, films like Baz Luhrmann’s Moulin Rouge (2001) (86) , P.J. Hogan
(87)’s Muriel’s Wedding, Stephan Elliot’s The Adventures of Priscilla: Queen of
the Desert (1994) (88) , Chris Noonan’s Babe (1995) (89) , Ana Kokkinos’
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Head On (1998) (90), Ray Lawrence’s Lantana (2001) (91), Phillip Noyce
(92)’s Rabbit-Proof Fence, Adam Elliot’s Harvey Crumpet(2003) (93) , and
Cate Shortland’s Somersault(2004) (94) are a few notable and unequivocal
examples of the best of well-known Australian films. It has been a kind of
tradition in Australia that a good number of Australia’s talented writers and
artists have sought recognition overseas in UK, USA and Europe. Among the
Australian actors to achieve recognition or international stardom have been
Cate Blanchett (95), Guy Pearce (96), Naomi Watts (97), Paul Hogan, Mel
Gibson (98), Geoffrey Rush (99), Toni Collette (100), Nicole Kidman (101),
Sam Neill (102), Russell Crowe (103), Hugh Jackman (104), Eric Bana (105),
Heath Ledger (106), Hugo Weaving (107), Judy Davis (108), and Rachel
Griffiths (109). Many of Australia’s successful film directors, like Peter Weir
(110), Fred Schepisi (111), Gillian Armstrong (112), Bruce Beresford (113),
Baz Luhrmann, Phillip Noyce, Jane Campion (114), Robert Luketic (115),
Mario Andreacchio (116), and Gregor Jordan (117) have also moved onto
Hollywood to direct hugely successful films.
Notes
(1) a great hodge-podge of world cultures：a mixture of dissimilar ingredients of
world cultures.
(2) a Great South Land：one of the island of the Pacific nation mistaken known
as Vanuatu (New Hebrides) for the Great South Land by Pedro Fernandez
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de Quiros, Spanish explorer in 1606. He was the first man to use the
name “Terra Australis del Espiritu Santu”---the “Great South Land of the
Holy Spirit”---for what we now know as the nation of Australia.
(3) Wide Brown Land: Australian land by Dorothy McKellar in his “My
Country”--A land of sweeping plains,
Of rugged mountain ranges,
Of droughts and flooding rains.
I love her far horizons,
I love her jewel-sea,
Her beauty and her terror
The wide brown land for me!
(4) a Godforsaken Land: Australian Gibson Desert.
(5) Land of the Fair Go：Australia prides itself on being the land of the ‘fair
go’.The Fair Go: an equal chance to attempt something.
(6) Antipodes: used to refer to Australian and New Zealand.
(7) Down Under: a colloquialism which is variously construed either to refer to
Australia and New Zealand, or Australia alone.
(8) an underpopulated continent: a continent of population decline.
。
(9) Mad Max (1979): 《疯狂的麦克斯》
(10) Crocodile Dundee (1986): 《鄂鱼邓迪》
。
(11) a Weird Mob(1966)：《登陆蛮荒岛》。
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(12) Rabbit-Proof Fence (2002)：《防兔篱笆》。
(13) The Tracker (2002)：《紧急追踪》。
(14) Jammin’ in the Middle E (2005): a movie shines light on the inhabitants of
Western Sydney, an area known for its cultural diversity.
(15) The Man from Snowy River (1982)：《来自雪河的男人》。
(16) Happy Feet (2007)：《快乐的大脚》。
(17) We of the Never Never (1982)：《有情天地》。
(18) The Picture Show Man (1977)：a movie showing a man, his son and a
piano player travel around Australia at the beginnings of this century. But
what they really want is to stay at one place and open up a cinema.
(19) The Castle (1977)：
《古堡》。
(20) the Discovery: the third operational orbiter, and the oldest orbiter in
service.
(21) National Geographic channels: a subscription television channel.
(22) apart: an adverb meaning “so as to except or exclude from consideration
or aside”.
(23) hit: a noun referring to a successful or popular film, e.g.
a Broadway hit.百老汇热门的戏剧。
(24) The Fringe Dwellers (1986): a Story of an aboriginal family who tries to
move out of the fringe into the main white community.
(25) Black Talk (2002): a film exploring spiritual aspects of Indigenous culture
and community.
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(26) The most reverberating national myths in Australia are the myths of
identity such as the interconnection between landscape and character, the
quest for home, and definitions of Australianness and these are all
pervasive in both Australian cinema and culture, be it the film genres of
comedy, tragedy, horror, drama, humor, documentary and so on or
cultural
expressions
of
music,
theatre,
mass
art,
photography,
multiculturalism, educational institutes, etc.
This sentence is a subjective mood. From a subjective point of view,
Australians believe in national myths.
(27) O’Regan (1989): Tom O’Regan took up the position of Professor of Media
and Cultural Studies in 2004. He has been a key figure in the development
of media and cultural studies in Australia and has an international
reputation for his cultural policy studies related work.
(28) Australian production houses: a facility that provides film show and
production, e.g. a movie house 电影院。
(29) a defacto control：an actual control.
(30) govt. inquiries/commissions: governmental commissions to do a close
examination of a matter in a search for information or truth.
(31) quotas: part of a share that is due or ought to be contributed.
(32) a Royal Commission is a major government public inquiry into an issue.
(33) Gorton (1911–2002): the 19th Prime Minister of Australia.
(34) the Interim Board of the AFC: the temporary Board of the Australian Film
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Commission, an Australian Government agency operating as part
of the Commonwealth Film Program to ensure the creation, availability
and preservation of Australian audiovisual content.
(35) This phase of culture romance: the time between the late 1960s and
1970s. An influx of government funding saw the development of a new
generation of film makers telling distinctively Australian stories, including
directors Peter Weir, George Miller and Bruce Beresford. Films such as
Picnic at Hanging Rock and Sunday Too Far Away had an immediate
international impact. The 1980s is often regarded as a golden age of
Australian cinema, with many successful films, from the historical drama
of Gallipoli, to the dark science fiction of Mad Max, the romantic
adventure of The Man from Snowy River or the comedy of Crocodile
Dundee.
《悬崖下的午餐》。
(36) Picnic at Hanging Rock (1975)：
(37) Newsfront (1978)：《新闻线上》。
(38) My Brilliant Career (1979)：《我的璀璨生涯》
。
(39) Gallipoli (1982)：《加利波里》。
(40) Jock Given (1995 - ): Professor of Media and Communications at
Swinburne University, Australia.
(41) Whitlam: the 21st Prime Minister of Australia.
(42) Fraser (1832 - 1919): the 22nd Prime Minister of Australia.
(43) 10BA: a tax scheme which was introduced in 1981 by legislation to
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implement. That was called the 10BA tax scheme and provided
extremely attractive tax relief for those investing in films.
(44) Hawke: the 23rd Prime Minister of Australia.
(45) the Film Finance Corporation (FFC): the Australian Government’s
principal agency for funding the production of film and television.
(46) Keating: the 24th Prime Minister in Australia.
(47) Creative Nation: the term coming from Creative Nation: Commonwealth
Cultural Policy issued in 1994. Creative Nation marked the first occasion
of an Australian federal government enunciating a clearly articulated
cultural policy.
(48) aspire to: hope for, long for.
(49) owe to: attribute to.
(50) in place: In the appropriate or usual position or order, e.g.: With everything
in place, she started the slide show.
(51) the Australian Film Commission (AFC): see (34).
(52) the Australian Film, Television and Radio School (AFTRS):the Australian
national centre for professional education and advanced training in film,
television, radio and digital media. The School is an Australian
Commonwealth government statutory authority.
(53) the Film Finance Corporation (FFC): the Australian Government's
principal agency for funding the production of film and television.
(54) Film Australia (FA): Production of documentaries, marketing and
190
distribution services, production and post-production facilities, preview
cinemas, stock footage library and archive.
(55) the Australian Children’s Television Foundation (ACTF): a non-profit,
government-funded organization in Australia.
(56) the Cinemas of the World: the films and film industries.
(57) Ben Goldsmith: an academic researcher in media production, distribution,
exhibition and analysis.
(58) Raymond Longford’s The Sentimental Bloke (1932)
Raymond Longford (1878–1959): a prolific Australian film director, writer,
producer and actor during the silent era. The Sentimental Bloke (1919):
an Australian silent film based on the 1915 poem The Songs of a
Sentimental Bloke by C.J. Dennis.
(59) Charles Chauvell’s Jedda (1955)
Charles Chauvell (1897 –1959): an Australian film maker.
Jedda (1955)：《洁达》。
(60) John Heyer’s famous documentary The Back of Beyond (1954)
John Heyer (1916 - 2001): an Australian documentary filmmaker.
The Back of Beyond (1954): a collection of travelling vignettes along the
Birdsville Track.
(61) Walter Barnett (1862 - 1934): Australian photographer.
(62) Marius Sestier (1861–1928): Cinematographer.
(63) The Melbourne Cup: Australia’s major Thoroughbred house race.
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(64) The Story of the Kelly Gang (1906): 《凯利帮的故事》
。
(65) The Limelight Department: one of the world's first film studios, beginning
in 1898, operated by The Salvation Army in Melbourne, Australia.
(66) The Salvation Army: an evangelical Christian church known for charitable
work.
(67) Neale (1981)：Senior Lecturer in the field of Creative Studies, School of
Humanities and Cultural Industries, University of Warwick.
(68) Ken G. Hall (1901–1994): an Australian film director who is considered
one of the most important figures in the history of the Australian film
industry.
(69) The Squatter’s Daughter (1933): is a multi-character bush drama at a
sheep station (ranch).
(70)“golden age”: the ten years of the 1970s and 80s which are regarded by
many as a “golden age” of Australian cinema.
(71)“AFC Genre”: the role of films in the 1960s as quasi-official
representatives of Australian films. AFC 类型片。
(72) Walkabout (1971): 《小姐弟荒原历险》
。
(73) Sunday Too Far Away (1975)：《遥遥星期天》。
。
(74) The Chant of Jimmie Blacksmith (1978)：《吉米·布莱克史密斯的圣歌》
(75) Shine (1996)：《闪亮的风采》。
(76) a box office: a place where tickets are sold to the public for admission to a
venue. By extension, the term is frequently used, especially in the
192
context of the film industry. 票房。
(77) Lisa French: Associate Professor of Cinema Studies, Media and
Communications RMIT University, Melbourne, Australia.
(78) Felicity Collins: Professor of Cinema Studies in La Trobe University,
Australia.
(79) Katherine Bode: a scholar in gender studies, Australian literary and
cultural studies, and data-based analyses of literary culture.
(80) The Outback: also known as Wake in Fright.
(81) Wake in Fright (1971)：《假期惊魂》。
(82) Baz Luhrmann’s Strictly Ballroom (1993)
Baz Luhrmann (1962- ): an Australian film director and producer best
known for The Red Curtain Trilogy, which includes his films Strictly
Ballroom, William Shakespeare’s Romeo + Juliet and Moulin Rouge.
Strictly Ballroom (1993)：《舞国英雄》。
(83) Muriel’s Wedding (1994): 《穆丽尔的婚礼》
。
(84) Clara Law’s Floating Life (1996)
Clara Law (1957- ): a Hong Kong Film director. Floating Life (1996): 《浮
生》。
(85) David Caesar’s Idiot Box (1996)
David Caesar (1963- ): an Australian film director. Idiot Box: an
uncompromising look in the mirror, a vision of vanquished men
hamstrung by a lack of education, prospects or the intelligence to extract
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themselves from the morass of a suburban hell.
(86) Baz Luhrmann’s Moulin Rouge (2001)：《红磨坊》
。
(87) P.J. Hogan (1962- ): an Australian film director.
(88) Stephan Elliot’s The Adventures of Priscilla: Queen of the Desert (1994)
Stephan Elliot (1964- ): an Australian film director. The Adventures of
Priscilla: Queen of the Desert (1994)：《沙漠妖姬》。
(89) Chris Noonan’s Babe (1995)
Chris Noonan (1952- ): an Australian filmmaker and actor best known for
the pioneering live-action / CG film Babe.
Babe (1995)：《宝贝小猪》。
(90) Ana Kokkinos’ Head On (1998)
Ana Kokkinos (1958- ): an Australian film director. Head On (1998):《正
面碰撞》。
(91) Ray Lawrence’s Lantana (2001)
Ray Lawrence (1948 - ): Australian film director.
Lantana (2001): 《马缨丹》。
(92) Phillip Noyce (1950 - ): an Australian film director.
(93) Adam Elliot’s Harvey Crumpet (2003)
Adam Elliot (1972 - ): an independent stop-motion animation writer and
director.
(94) Cate Shortland’s Somersault (2004)
Cate Shortland (1968 - ): an Australian writer and director of film and
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television. Somersault (2004): 《生命翻筋斗》
。
(95) Cate Blanchett (1968 - ): an Australian actress and theatre director.
(96) Guy Pearce (1967 - ): an English-born Australian actor and musician.
(97) Naomi Watts (1968 - ): an English-Australian actress.
(98) Mel Gibson (1956 - ): an American actor, film director, and producer.
(99) Geoffrey Rush (1951 - ): an Australian actor.
(100) Toni Collette (1972 - ): an Australian actress and musician.
(101) Nicole Kidman (1967 - ): an American-born Australian actress.
(102) Sam Neill (1947 - ): a New Zealand actor.
(103) Russell Crowe (1964 - ): a naturalized Australian actor.
(104) Hugh Jackman (1968 - ): an Australian actor and producer.
(105) Eric Bana (1968 - ): an Australian film and television actor.
(106) Heath Ledger (1979-2008): an Australian film actor.
(107) Hugo Weaving (1960 - ): a Nigerian-born English-Australian film and
stage actor.
(108) Judy Davis (1955 - ): an Australian actress.
(109) Rachel Griffiths (1968 - ): an Australian film and television actress.
(110) Peter Weir (1944 - ) is an Australian film director. After playing a leading
role in the Australian New Wave cinema with his films such as Picnic at
Hanging Rock, The Last Wave and Gallipoli, Weir relocated to the US
and directed a diverse group of American and international films—many
of them major box office hits—including the Academy Award nominees
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Witness, Dead Poets Society, and Green Card.
(111) Fred Schepisi (1939 - ): an Australian film director and screenwriter.
(112) Gillian Armstrong (1950 - ): an award-winning Australian director of
feature films and documentaries.
(113) Bruce Beresford (1940 - ): a highly regarded Australian film director who
has made more than thirty feature films over a forty year career.
(114) Jane Campion (1954 - ): a film maker and screenwriter.
(115) Robert Luketic (1973 - ): an Australian film director.
(116) Mario Andreacchio (1955 - ): an Australian film director.
(117) Gregor Jordan (1966 - ): an Australian film director.
New words
fascinating
a.
contradictory
cliché
吸引人的
a.
矛盾的
n.
陈规陋习
stereotype
enhance
n.
陈腔滥调，老套
v.
提
高
underpopulated
outback
tame
a.
人口稀少的
n.
内地
v.
patriarch
制服
n.
创始人
196
portraiture
stick
n.
肖像画
v.
粘贴于
bushranger
n.
swagmen
丛林汉
n.
流浪
汉
suburbia
n.
郊区
idiosyncrasy
n.
特质
ideology
n.
思想意识
demolish
v.
破坏
weird
mob
a.
怪异的
n.
暴徒
shatter
v.
打碎
solely
ad.
唯一地
reverberating
a.
interconnection
pervasive
genre
反响的
n.
互连
a.
普遍的
n.
hegemony
类型
n.
霸
权
monopolistic
undisputed
defacto
a.
垄断的
a.
无可争辩的
a.
事实上的
197
ease
v.
缓和
initiative
n.
首创精神
censorship
n.
审查制度
underlying
a.
根本的
vibrant
a.
充满生气的
inquisitive
a.
好奇的
credit
v.
归功于
phase
n.
aspire
v.
渴望
panel
n.
专门小组
阶段
preamble
n.
序文
endeavor
n.
尽力
narrative
a.
interval
n.
orthodox
depict
叙述的
间隔
a.
正统的
v.
描述
premier
a.
最初的
secular
a.
世俗的
orient
influx
demise
revival
v.
确定方向
n.
流入
n.
死亡
n.
复活
198
renaissance
rid
n.
复兴
v.
使去掉
reemergence
n.
再度出
现
wholesome
a.
审慎
的
dub
v.
授予称号
foregrounding
promotional
box-office
trope
最突出的位置的
a.
增进的
n.
票房
n.
larrikin
ocker
a.
比喻
a.
喧闹的
n.
无教养的澳大利亚人
respectively
hybridized
分别地
a.
unequivocal
stardom
ad.
混合的
a.
不含糊的，明确的
n.
明星界
Exercises
1. Make True or False judgments.
(1)In the eyes of the author, Australia was considered as a country without
history and a mythology, however, Australia has been struggling to
199
construct its national identity through developing cinemas.
(2) According to the author, the Australian film industry started with convicts.
(3) The Australian myths are viewed as the myths of national identity which are
pervasive in both Australian cinema and culture.
(4) After the World War II, American films entered the Australian film markets
and had a strong impact on Australia’s local cinema.
(5) A very important change in the Australian film industry is the shift from
American influence to Australian multicultural breakthrough.
2. Answer questions.
(1) What is the aim of this article?
(2) Why is it said that the Australian cinema industry is policy led?
(3) Why was the 1970s called the “golden age” or the renaissance of
Australian cinema?
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Chapter 6 Multiculturalism
6.1 Overview: A cohesive and diverse country
201
Australia is very proud of its multiculturalism. Australia’s immigration policy is
global and does not discriminate on racial, cultural or religious grounds.
Australia recognizes, accepts and respects cultural diversity. There are few
countries in the world where migrants have achieved the level of economic,
political, social and cultural participation that they have in Australia.
6.1.1 Australian multiculturalism
Since the late 1940s, about 5.6 million immigrants from over 140 countries
have made Australia their home. Socially, immigration has made Australia one
of the most cosmopolitan and active societies in the world. As we know,
Australia is a nation built by people from many different backgrounds. Cultural
diversity has become a touchstone of its national identity. Supporting modern
Australian society is a policy of multiculturalism. This policy came from great
changes to Australian society resulting from a major influx of migrants
following World War II and has been maintained and continued by successive
governments.
The term “Australian multiculturalism” summarizes the way the nation deals
with the challenges and chances of its diversity. It accepts and respects the
rights of all Australians to express and share their individual cultural heritage.
By 1970, the word “multiculturalism” had been introduced from Canada and
minority groups were forming local and national associations to promote their
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language and heritage within mainstream culture. Multiculturalism is a fact of
life in the Australia of today. It means not only people living together of different
cultures but also different religions (John Healy, 2000: 2-46).
6.1.2 The historical progress of multiculturalism
6.1.2.1 The assimilation stage
In Australia, this term means when the immigrants cast off their
languages, customs and national sentiments, and become indistinguishable
within the“Anglo-Celtic” core culture. Australia adopted the policy of
assimilation from 1901 to the mid-1960s.
The idea of a White Australia emerged out of the 19th century’s hybrid,
Darwinian and eugenic theories. The rapid decline of the Indigenous
population due to the settlers’ inhuman treatment by the Whites fostered
the notion that to preserve the Australia continent as a place where the
British race should be spread from sea to sea and unmixed with any lower
caste. Racial purity became the main concern for this policy. The film
Rabbit Proof Fence directed by Phillip Noyce recorded how three Aboriginal
girls as “half-castes” were taken away from their families to the
re-education camp run by the White.
In 1901, the Immigration Restriction Act was passed, in which the
203
notorious Dictation Test was adopted. It stipulated that a person who
failed to write out a dictation passage of fifty words in length in
a European language in front of an officer would be prohibited from
entering Australia. The government also imposed a poll-tax on those
immigrants from non-European countries. To those immigrants already
in Australia as well as and the Indigenous people, they were forced to give up
their language, culture and national sentiments (Zhang Xianping, 2007:
255-256).
6.1.2.2 The integration stage
In the 1960s, the assimilation policy obtained considerable
objections. The government had to abandon the use of assimilation in
favour of integration. The term “integration” advocated a view of
mutual acquaintance, accommodation and understanding in migrant
settlement. It started to change Australia’s discourse on immigration.
The integration policy recognized that large numbers of migrants,
especially those whose first language was not English, experienced
hardships as they settled into life in Australia and required more direct
assistance. Expenditure on migrant assistance and welfare rose sharply
in the early 1970s in response to these needs. Aid grants for community
organizations to hire bilingual social workers to work with migrant
clients were introduced by the government.
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6.1.2.3 The multiculturalism stage
By 1973, the term “multiculturalism” started to be used in Australia.
The adoption of multiculturalism reflected the changes in Australian
society. In 1947, Australia was one of the most monocultural societies
in the world. Australia could claim to be 99% white and 96% British, a
White-dominant society. In 1996, Australia appeared to be far more varied
than it was forty years before. Many migrants were from the countries of
Asia. This multicultural variety was most visible in major cities.
In the 1978 report of the Committee on Migrant Programs and Services, it
concluded that “ it was essential for the government to encourage a
multicultural attitude in Australian society by fostering the retention of cultural
heritages of different ethnic groups and promote inter-cultural understanding.”
It stated that migrants have the right to maintain their cultural and racial identity
(Australia: Review of Post-arrival Programs and Services to Migrants, 1978).
In 1979, the Australian Institute of Multicultural Affairs was established with the
objectives of raising awareness of cultural diversity and promoting social
cohesion, understanding and tolerance. In 1987 this institute was replaced by
the Office of Multicultural Affairs in the Department of the Prime Minister and
Cabinet. In 1989, by following community consultations and drawing on the
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advice of the Advisory Council for Multicultural Affairs, the Australian
government produced the National Agenda for a Multicultural Australia, which
won bipartisan political support. The Agenda presented limits and goals for
multiculturalism in Australia, including an overriding and unifying commitment
to Australia, acceptance of the basic structures and principles of Australian
society, and acceptance of the rights of others to express their views and
values.
In 1994, the Agenda was reviewed and updated by the National Multicultural
Advisory Council, which in 1995 launched a report that claimed many of the
goals had been achieved and recommended further initiatives. Following the
election of a coalition government in March 1996, the office of Multicultural
Affairs was absorbed into the Department of Immigration and Multicultural
Affairs, the same year that Parliament endorsed the Parliamentary Statement
on Racial Tolerance. In June 1997, the new NMAC was established, whose
first task was to develop a report recommending a policy and unified
implementation framework for Australia.
On May 5, 1999, Prime Minister, Mr. John Howard, launched NMAC report:
“Australian multiculturalism for a new century: towards inclusiveness.” In
December 1999, a New Agenda for Multicultural Australia was produced, in
which four principles were presented:
206
(1) Civic duty, which obliged all Australians to support those principles of
Australian society which guarantee their freedom and equality and enable
diversity in their society to flourish;
(2) Cultural respect, which, subject to the law, gave all Australians the right to
express their own culture and beliefs and obliged them to accept the right of
others to do the same;
(3) Social equality, which entitled all Australians to equality of treatment and
opportunity so that they were able to contribute to the social, political and
economic life of Australia, free from discrimination on the grounds of race,
culture, religion, language, location, gender, or place of birth;
(4) Productive diversity, which maximized for all Australians the significant
cultural, social and economic dividends arising from the whole population
(Leonie Kramer, 2003: 35-89).
Australian multiculturalism is the philosophy underlying government
policy and programs that recognizes, accepts, respects and celebrates its
cultural diversity. It embraces the heritage of Indigenous Australians,
early European settlement, Australian-grown customs and those of a
diverse range of migrants now coming to this country. Australia has set
up a national Harmony Day on the 21st of March, which began in 1999, and
continues each year to celebrate its success as a diverse society, united
as one family by over 100 nations from different places of the world.
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New words
expertise
n.
专门技术
cosmopolitan
touchstone
tangible
a.
世界性的
n.
标准
a.
specimen
有形的
n.
样
本
indistinguishable
hybrid
a.
不能区别的
a.
eugenic
杂种的
a.
优生学的
caste
n.
社会地位
racial
a.
种族的
notorious
stipulate
a.
v.
impose
强加
n.
论述
n.
委托人
monocultural
Catholics
a.
单一文化的
n.
denomination
nominal
规定
v.
discourse
client
臭名昭著的
天主教徒
n.
名称
a.
名义上的
208
retention
ethnic
n.
保留
a.
种族的
cohesion
n.
consultation
agenda
结合
n.
磋商
n.
议
程
bipartisan
advisory
a.
a.
implementation
civic
代表两党的
咨询的
n.
履行
a.
dividend
公民的
n.
资本，股息
Exercises
1. Explain terms.
(1) the White Policy
(2) the policy of assimilation
(3) Multiculturalism in Australia (4) the National Harmony Day
2. Answer questions.
(1) What are the three historical stages of multiculturalism in Australia?
(2) What were the sources of the policy of the assimilation?
(3) What are the main contents of a New Agenda for Multicultural Australia?
(4) Does multiculturalism mean that Australia no longer has its own identity?
209
3. Questions for further consideration.
(1) What is the future of multiculturalism in Australia?
(2) What significance did waves of immigrants in post-World War II years
mean to the racial and ethnic diversity in Australian society?
(3) What is criticism against multiculturalism in Australia?
(4) Is Australia being swamped by people of any particular origin?
(5) How were ideas of race and nationality linked?
(6) How much government assistance do migrants and refugees receive?
(7) Does multiculturalism challenge nationalism?
6．2
Reading passage 1: Is Australia a multicultural nation? By David Carter
①
(①David Carter: Professor of School of English, Media Studies and Art History,
the University of Queensland, Brisbane, Australia. “Is Australia a multicultural
nation?” by David Carter. 28 October 2010. A Key Speech in the 12th
International Conference of Australian Studies in Shanghai，China.)
Is Australia a multicultural nation? This might seem a strange question.
Australia is known in many parts of the world as a successful example of
multiculturalism, a model for other nations to emulate. It has one of the highest
percentage of immigrants in its resident population, more than 25% by
210
mid-2008, second only to Israel in global terms and so higher than the USA or
Canada. Further, Australia has defined itself as multicultural since the
mid-1970s, a policy that has had the support of both major political parties with
only slight variations in emphasis. And, finally, there are many multicultural
programs in place across the country: in all States, in primary and secondary
schools, in universities, in community organizations and so on (1). The
occasional high-profile debate (2) about multiculturalism in Australia — from
the Blainey debate (3) to Pauline Hanson (4) to the so-called Cronulla riots (5)
— only seems to highlight the degree to which Australia is indeed a
multicultural nation.
International immigration represented 65% of Australia’s population growth in
the year 2008-2009, a very high figure globally, and numbers in this range
have been the pattern now for some time (6). Yet as James Jupp, one of
Australia’s leading historians of immigration, has repeatedly argued, a high
level of immigration does not necessarily mean a ‘multicultural society’ —
that is, a society characterized by cultural, linguistic, religious or ethnic
diversity, demographically and in its institutional or policy structures (7).
Jupp has argued even more strongly that the common description of Australia
as ‘one of the most multicultural societies in the world’ is simply wrong.
Although precision is impossible, it has been estimated that between 65% and
211
70% of Australians have an Anglo-Celtic (8) background. Australia, despite its
high immigration intake, is probably ‘whiter’ than either the USA or Canada.
The figure of 25% overseas-born in the Australian population is often quoted
not just as a fact but as a source of pride — as evidence of Australia’s tolerant,
democratic society, and of our commitment to multicultural pluralism. What we
don’t often mention is the fact that the vast majority of migrants since World
War II have come from the United Kingdom and Ireland — near to 50% of the
total of new migrants in the 1960s, 25% in the seventies, and still between
11% and 18% of new immigrant arrivals today. This fact is often forgotten in
our enthusiasm to celebrate ethnic diversity, or, from the opposite perspective,
in fears about ethnic ‘dilution’. Certainly, for a number of decades, immigration
reinforced rather than undermined white Anglo-Celtic or Anglo-Australian —
or more broadly ‘European’ — demographic and cultural dominance.
In the final analysis, I want to argue that Australia is both more and less
multicultural than official versions of Australian multiculturalism suggest. I will
begin with five reasons why we should not consider Australia a multicultural
nation. Then I will answer these points with five reasons as to why we should
still see Australia as multicultural. First, then, let me put forward the less
familiar evidence for Australia not being a multicultural nation.
212
1. First, the demographic points already indicated. The majority of the
population is of British, ‘Anglo-Australian’ (9) or ‘Anglo-Celtic’ background,
around 70% as suggested.
2. Second the point about immigration patterns. The demographic majority has
been reinforced by high levels of immigration from the UK since World War II,
high levels which have continued right through to the present. Even though the
percentage of UK immigration in the overall immigration mix has been
declining on an annual basis (10), it is still one of the largest source countries
for new migrants, usually in the top two or three, alongside New Zealand,
South Africa, China and India. Those born in the UK remain the largest group
of overseas born in Australia, about four times larger than the Chinese born for
example.
3. Third, the question of language. If Australia is a multicultural nation it is also,
at the same time, largely monolingual in institutional terms despite the fact that
the population speaks ‘ almost 400 languages ’ according to the official
Australian Year Book 2009-10 (11). Multicultural but monolingual: this is a key
dynamic for understanding diversity in Australia. Of course this is due in part to
forces (12) larger than those of national policy, to the global dominance of
English. Nonetheless, despite a history of short-term policies for promoting
foreign language maintenance or education, at a federal level mono rather
than multi-lingualism has received the policy weighting in recent years. As in
213
so many policy areas, it was John Howard as Prime Minister who set the tone
(13). His government not only insisted upon English-language ability among
migration criteria but saw a shared language as the key to social ‘harmony’ as
it liked to call the goal of multiculturalism. Indeed it made a point of (14)
defining English as Australia’s ‘official language’ although this is not stated
anywhere in legislation or the Constitution. There is now little trace of the
earlier principle, expressed by Prime Minister Keating (15) in 1995, of the right
of individuals to ‘expression and sharing of their cultural heritage, including
language and religion’.
4. My fourth point also concerns demography, but this time settlement patterns.
Ethnic, linguistic and religious diversity is very unevenly distributed across the
nation — Melbourne, Sydney and Darwin more than the other capitals, all the
capital cities more than smaller centers, and urban areas in general more than
rural or regional Australia. Even within our most multicultural centers, within
our cities, diversity is very unevenly distributed. While the language of
‘ghettos’ (16) has never been appropriate to Australia despite its use in scare
campaigns (17), there has been a predictable pattern of high concentration of
first generation migrants in certain parts of the capital cities, while other areas
show almost no trace of immigration or ethnic diversity.
This fact of the unequal presence of diversity in different parts of the nation has
enormous and largely underestimated consequences for policy and politics in
214
Australia. For what is an everyday and completely ordinary experience for
some Australians (meeting with, working with, socializing with Australians of
different ethnic backgrounds) is foreign, unfamiliar and so potentially
threatening for many others. If multiculturalism makes good sense of everyday
experience for the first group, to the second group it might well seem like a
mysterious ‘ plot ’ , a form of enforced ‘ social engineering ’ , invented by
bureaucrats in Canberra, something which does not speak at all to their
everyday sense of being Australian.
The ethnic distribution of new migrants is also very uneven. In Victoria and
NSW, the largest groups of new migrants are from China and India. But in Qld
(18) and WA (19) they are from NZ (20), the UK and South Africa. Are we
producing a newly divided Australia, the reverse of what it was in 1900, with an
Asian multiracial south east and a white north and west? Probably not yet. But
we can say that for some Australians, in some parts of the country, Australia is
not a multicultural nation.
5. My fifth and final point, and perhaps the most important, concerns policy. To
make the point dramatically we can say that multicultural policy itself is not
very multicultural. It is surprisingly difficult to find any reference to
multiculturalism on the website of the federal Department of Immigration and
Citizenship (21). A search on the website for ‘multiculturalism’ produces a
series of documents — but nothing beyond 2002-2003. A search for
215
‘multicultural’ brings up (22) a link to the Australian Multicultural Advisory
Council (23), which I’ll discuss in a moment.
The Rudd (24) and now Gillard (25) Labor governments have retained the
name for the Department introduced by the Howard (26) government in 2006
to replace the previous ‘Department of Immigration and Multicultural Affairs’
(27). The change of name, replacing ‘ multiculturalism ’ with ‘ citizenship ’
reflects the unease which the Howard government felt about any notion of
ethnic difference. The change to ‘citizenship’ signaled a shift of (28) rhetoric
whereby (29) the predominant discourse became that of ‘unity’ and shared
values, or simply ‘Australian values’, in the language Howard preferred, and
which continues in current policy documents. In the Howard government’s
official definitions of multiculturalism, the key words were not ‘diversity’ or
‘ difference ’ but ‘ tolerance ’ and ‘ harmony ’ . Of course ‘ tolerance ’ and
‘harmony’ are good things, much better than ‘intolerance’ and ‘disharmony’,
but the way these words are used has the effect of downplaying any sense of a
society that is characterized by or that values difference. Multiculturalism
becomes a way of talking about unity rather than diversity. It’s what I call
‘white multiculturalism’.
Little has changed under a Labor government. As indicated, the new name for
the Department has been retained, as has the Statement of Australian Values
(30) that migrants are required to declare, and the Citizenship Test (31)
216
introduced by the Howard government in October 2007 (although this has
been reviewed and modified, with a new focus on civic rather than cultural
questions) (32). The current Australian Values Statement makes no mention of
multiculturalism. It is worded (33) in terms of abstract liberal-democratic
principles such as the ‘equality of men and women’, but the closest the
Statement gets to proclaiming multiculturalism is a negative definition: ‘equal
opportunity for individuals, regardless of their race, religion or ethnic
background’.
The booklet the Department publishes to accompany the Values Statement
also makes no reference to multiculturalism. There are a few references to
‘cultural diversity’: ‘Australia’s cultural diversity is a strength which makes for a
dynamic society ’ . But every time ‘ cultural diversity ’ is mentioned it is
contained and, as it were (34), pacified: ‘An important feature of Australian
society today is not only the cultural diversity of its people, but the extent to
which they are united by an overriding and unifying commitment to Australia’
(my emphasis). Or again: ‘One of the defining features of Australian society
today is the cultural diversity of its people and the extent to which they are
united by an overriding and unifying commitment to Australia’ (my emphasis).
Elsewhere, under ‘Australian values’, the document states that ‘The English
language, as the national language, is an important unifying element of
Australian society’. It’s as if cultural diversity can’t be trusted to be let out (35)
on its own without being chaperoned by that defensive notion of an overriding
217
and unifying commitment to Australia. In such statements, we can still hear the
faint echoes of multicultural policy at its strongest (36), where an insistence on
the rule of law and citizenship served as (37) a counter to ethnic definitions of
the nation. But the notion of ‘diversity’ has been leached of (38) any serious
meaning, any fundamental sense of difference.
Of course these are all bureaucratic documents designed for specific ends
within the administration of a migrant settlement program, so their emphases
are perhaps not surprising, nor are the principles outlined exceptionable.
Indeed the Values booklet is rather sophisticated in its discussion of Australian
identity. Nonetheless the current documents provide strong evidence for my
point: multicultural policy, if it can still be said to exist, is at best (39) a pale
reflection of its former self; indeed in many ways it is anti-multicultural in spirit
and effect.
The Rudd government did take one new initiative under the name of
multiculturalism, establishing the Australian Multicultural Advisory Council in
December 2008. Comprised of 16 individuals from diverse backgrounds
(Anglo, immigrant, and Indigenous), its role is to advise the Minister on ‘social
cohesion issues’, overcoming intolerance and racism, communicating the
social and economic benefits of diversity, and issues relating to social and civic
participation. The Council (40) has produced a ‘statement on cultural diversity’
called The Australian People which makes some strong statements of
218
multiculturalism: ‘Multicultural Australia is this Australia, this democracy, the
country we know. Australia is multicultural, it always has been and we can say
with certainty that it will be in the future…. We are multicultural because we
choose to be and need to be.’ Despite the rather questionable history in this
assertion, the statement is a forceful one, about as forceful as it can be in an
environment where multiculturalism was, and remains, on the defensive (41). It
recommends that governments too should be more forceful in telling the story:
‘Our political leaders should have no difficulty in presenting “multicultural
Australia” as an important part of the “ national identity” they frequently
invoke’. At the same time the statement is defensive, a kind of minimalist
definition of multiculturalism: ‘Multicultural Australia is not a vision or an
ambition, much less an ideology or creed. It describes us as we are.’ Its
recommendations are practical and positive, but again guarded and minimalist:
a ‘sound multicultural policy … will encourage cultural diversity and celebrate
it, but only within the broader aim of social harmony, national unity, and
fundamental freedoms such as gender equality’. While multiculturalism was
always contained within the limits of the Australian law and political structures,
the minimalism and defensiveness of this new document shows the effects of
the Howard years. This is definitely multiculturalism post-9/11 (42).
Having presented five arguments as to why Australia is not a multicultural
country, or at least that it is less multicultural than we often assume, let me turn
now to argue the opposing case and to answer each of my five negative points
219
in turn.
1. First, demographics. While the majority of the population is indeed of
‘Anglo-Celtic’ background, this percentage has been steadily declining since
the 1980s, indeed ever since the late 1950s, from well over 90% to less than
70%, and the trend is increasing. The trend is decidedly towards ethnic
diversity and ‘ethnic mixing’. The latter is an important emphasis, because
official statistics generally do not take account of (43) the high degree of
intermarriage and ‘mixing’ in Australia. There is a high level of ‘marrying out’
– that is of people marrying out of their own ethnic community. Demographer
Charles Price has shown that almost 80% of second-generation Chinese and
more than 90% of Indians, for example, marry outside their own community
(44). There is also a high degree of intermarriage between Indigenous and
non-Indigenous Australians.
2. Second, immigration patterns. While it is true that a significant percentage of
Australia ’ s new migrants continue to arrive from Britain, this figure has
undergone a dramatic decline over recent decades. And if we look in terms of
regions rather than countries we get an even stronger picture of fundamental
change in the migrant intake: around 17% of new migrants still arrive from
Europe, but almost 50% are from Asia, with another 16% from Africa and the
Middle East. This shift has been progressive since the 1970s and rapid since
the 1990s. Again, these statistics, just based on new migrants, do not take
220
account of second, third and fourth generation children of one or more
non-British backgrounds. In this sense, indeed, we can argue that Australia is
more multicultural than the official statistics indicate, with their focus on
migrant intake and numbers of overseas born, for these give little indication of
ethnic diversity within the resident population across generations.
3. Third, language. Of course, with its global dominance, English is an
irresistible force these days. At the same time, as Michael Clyne (45) has
argued in his book Australia’s Language Potential, Australia is much more
linguistically diverse than most official statements show (46). Our nation
census records that around 16% of Australian households use a language
other than English as the primary language, but this only registers the slightly
unusual way the Australian Bureau of Statistics (47) asks the question. A much
higher number of Australians speak languages other than English, primarily
through inter-generational and inter-marriage transmission, but also, of course,
through education or professional experience.
Although English does dominate our public institutions, it does not dominate
everywhere in our private or everyday lives. There is a rich tradition of
non-English language newspapers and, more recently, radio in Australia and,
if less than previously, SBS TV still broadcasts significantly in languages other
than English. So we can at least qualify the term ‘monolingual’. There is
substantial linguistic diversity in contemporary Australia although much of it
221
remains unacknowledged, under-appreciated and under-utilized.
4. My fourth point was that ethnic or cultural diversity in Australia is very
unevenly spread across the country. That is certainly the case, but at the same
time the places where cultural diversity is most concentrated are also the
places where the vast majority of Australians live – in the larger cities of one
of the most highly urbanized countries in the world. And although we can point
to specific ‘ ethnic areas ’ in particular suburbs of these cities – Greek,
Vietnamese, Lebanese (48), or Chinese suburbs – the overwhelming pattern
in Australia has been dispersal rather than concentration. New migrants, of
course, tend to cluster where housing is accessible, where work is available,
and/or where others from their country or language group are already living:
the Chinese in Sunnybank (49), in southern Brisbane, for example, where
more than 40% of households use one or other Chinese as a primary language.
Although these settlement patterns have been somewhat altered by Australia’
s current emphasis on professional and skilled migration, which has introduced
a new mobility among recent arrivals, they remain common. While the first
generation might stay in their place of arrival, the second generation moves
out – and often the first generation, too, once they get established. In this
sense, diversity is much more widely dispersed than the few highly visible,
highly concentrated examples of ‘ethnic suburbs’ suggest.
5. Finally, the policy area. This could be seen as the most serious charge
222
against Australia ’ s status as a multicultural nation (50). If the national
government can’t take multiculturalism seriously, why should anyone else? Let
me answer this point in two ways.
First, while multicultural policy has certainly been diluted at the federal policy
level, most of the active programs and most of the funding made available
under multicultural programs have always occurred at State and local
government level. Theorists and critics of multiculturalism have tended to
focus much too exclusively on the federal level, and on the level of explicit
policy statements. For the most part these State and local programs have
continued despite the change of rhetoric at the federal level. Australian schools,
for example, are strong sources of ‘multicultural’ education and experience.
Further, even at the national level, government institutions, and cultural
institutions, such as the Australia Council, almost always have ‘diversity’
programs built into their recruitment and management strategies. In other
words, multiculturalism is deeply embedded in (51) these institutions in a way
that is not directly affected by changes in political fashion at the parliamentary
or party level.
Second, as a number of commentators, including Jon Stratton (52) and
Ghassan Hage (53), have argued, it is important to distinguish between what
we might call ‘official’ multiculturalism, on the one hand, and ‘everyday’ or
‘ordinary’ multiculturalism, on the other (54).
223
Official multiculturalism tells the story of Australia’s successful multicultural
society: we celebrate cultural diversity, harmony and tolerance as evidence of
Australia’s democratic traditions and our capacity to integrate peoples from
diverse backgrounds without producing racial or religious conflict. In short, we
celebrate multiculturalism as a national achievement, as evidence of our own
virtue: it confirms rather than challenges ideas of national identity. This is the
multiculturalism promoted on national occasions (such as in speeches on
Australia Day) and less formally at multicultural festivals. This celebratory
multiculturalism is the focus of a great deal of critical academic work, but in fact
I don’t want to criticize it as I think it performs a valuable function in our society.
But it hardly reflects the reality of ‘multiculturalism on the street’ – of ordinary,
everyday multiculturalism.
What I mean by ordinary multiculturalism is the matter of fact, daily interactions
that many, perhaps the majority, of Australians (of different ethnic or linguistic
backgrounds) have with other Australians (of different ethnic backgrounds or
identities). Such relations are often imagined as relations between white or
Anglo-Australians and ethnic ‘others, but this is a failure of our multicultural
imaginations because of course, in contemporary Australia, the interactions
they are just as likely today to be interactions between Australians of mixed or
non-Anglo backgrounds on both sides. Everyday multiculturalism, we might
say, is both better and worse than official multiculturalism – ‘worse’ in the
sense that it will include examples of intolerance, disharmony, irreconcilable
224
differences, conflict and racism (there are spectacular examples, like the
Cronulla riots, but also everyday examples which pass under the radar). Ethnic
diversity can ’ t and won ’ t be one happy folk festival. But everyday
multiculturalism will also be ‘better’ than the official version in the sense that it
will include the very wide range of ordinary, mundane interactions with
neighbors, workmates, customers, students, lovers, doctors and dentists, and
so on, through which social and cultural interactions are transacted – the
building of new kinds of relationships, new ‘Australian values’ and, indeed,
new cultures, that happens at this less spectacular but more fundamental level.
At this level I’d want to say that Australia is in many ways more multicultural
than we sometimes assume, and more than official policy acknowledges with
its rhetoric of overriding and unifying commitments cares to admit. Much of the
Australian experience of diversity and difference is so ‘ ordinary ’ , so
everywhere and everyday, that we scarcely notice it.
So, is Australia a multicultural nation? Yes, but not necessarily in the ways we
or our governments like to think it is. It is more multicultural than the notion of
‘ Australian values ’ and ‘ unifying commitments ’ want to acknowledge —
diversity is already a great distance further down the track than these
conservative fantasies of national management care to admit (55). But it is less
multicultural, if I can put it that way, than images of happy, harmonious
‘festival multiculturalism’ project. Indigenous, settler, immigrant, Anglo, and
mixtures of them all — both more and less, and better and worse, than the
225
official version – this is the kind of multicultural Australia we need not just to
define but perhaps also, today, to defend.
Notes:
(1) “And, finally, there are many multicultural programs in place across the
country: in all States, in primary and secondary schools, in universities, in
community organizations and so on.” See David Carter, Dispossession,
Dreams and Diversity: Issues in Australian Studies, Sydney: Pearson,
2006, pp. 332-354.
(2) high-profile：attracting much attention and publicity.
(3) the Blainey debate: In 1984, Professor Blainey spoke of the Blainey debate
on the size and composition of Australia’s migrant intake.Geoffrey Blainey
(1930 - ): an Australian historian.
(4) Pauline Hanson (1954 - ): an Australian politician. In 2006, she was named
by The Bulletin as one of the 100 most influential Australians of all time.
(5) Cronulla riots: a series of racially motivated riots and mob violence
originating in Cronulla, New South Wales and spreading, over the next
few nights, to additional Sydney suburbs in 2005.
(6) Statistics here from the Australian Bureau of Statistics www.abs.gov.au.
(7) Yet as James Jupp, one of Australia’s leading historians of immigration,
has repeatedly argued, a high level of immigration does not necessarily
mean a ‘multicultural society’ — that is, a society characterized by
226
cultural, linguistic, religious or ethnic diversity, demographically and in its
institutional or policy structures. See
James Jupp, From White Australia to Woomera: The Story of Australian
Immigration, Melbourne: Cambridge University Press, 2002. James Jupp
(1932 - ): a British-Australian political scientist and author.
(8) Anglo-Celtic: a macro-cultural term used to collectively describe the
cultures native to Britain and Ireland.
(9) Anglo-Australian: Australians with British ancestral origins.
(10) on an annual basis: every year.
(11) the official Australian Year Book 2009-10: the official report from the
Australian Bureau of Statistics.
(12) due in part to forces: due to: because of; in part: To some extent; partly.
(13) set the tone: to establish a particular mood or character for something. 定
基调。
(14) make a point of: to be certain to do something that you think is important.
(15) Keating (1944 - ): the 24th Prime Minister of Australia.
(16) ‘ghetto’: now described as an overcrowded urban area often associated
with a specific ethnic or racial population; especially because of social,
legal, or economic pressure.
(17) in scare campaigns: campaigns run by organizations to promote fear on
an issue.
(18) Qld: Queensland, Australia.
(19) WA: Western Australia.
227
(20) NZ: New Zealand.
(21) the federal Department of Immigration and Citizenship (DIAC) has
managed the arrival and settlement in Australia of nearly seven million
migrants from 200 countries, including more than 700 000 refugees
under the Humanitarian Program since its establishment in 1945.
(22) bring up: introduce into discussion; mention.
(23) the Australian Multicultural Advisory Council: officially launched by the
Minister for Immigration and Citizenship, Senator Chris Evans, on 17
December 2008 in Melbourne.
(24) Rudd (1957 - ): an Australian politician, the current Minister for Foreign
Affairs, and a former Prime Minister of Australia.
(25) Gillard (1961 - ): the 27th Prime Minister of Australia.
(26) Howard (1939 - ): the 25th
Prime Minister of Australia.
(27) ‘ Department of Immigration and Multicultural Affairs ’ : Federal
Government Department dealing with Immigration and Multicultural
Affairs.
(28) a shift of: the change of.
(29) whereby: by or because of which.
(30) the Statement of Australian Values is that all applicants aged 18 years
and over are required to sign a values statement when applying for
selected visas. The statement requires applicants to confirm that they will
respect the Australian way of life and obey the laws of Australia before
228
being granted a visa.
(31) the Citizenship Test: a test that applicants for Australian citizenship who
also meet the basic requirements for citizenship.
(32) (although this has been reviewed and modified, with a new focus on civic
rather than cultural questions). See Department of Immigration and
Citizenship, http://www.immi.gov.au/.
(33) It is worded: it can be expressed as … .
(34) as it were: In a manner of speaking; as if such were so.
(35) let out: express audibly or make known.
(36) at its strongest: at its best.
(37) serve as: act as.
(38) leach of: to empty; drain.
(39) at best: at the most or under the most favorable conditions.
(40) the Council: the Australian Multicultural Advisory Council.
(41) on the defensive: prepared to withstand or attack.
(42) 9/11: suicide attacks by al-Qaeda upon the US on September 11, 2001.
(43) take account of: consider or pay attention to.
(44) marry outside their own community: cited in Stephen Fitzgerald, Is
Australia an Asian Country?
Sydney: Allen & Unwin, 1997, p. 66.
(45) Michael Clyne (1939–2010): an Australian linguist and academic.
(46) Australia is much more linguistically diverse than most official statements
show: See Michael Clyne, Australia’s Language Potential, Sydney: UNSW
Press, 2005.
229
(47) the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS): Australia’s national statistical
agency.
(48) Lebanese：黎巴嫩。
(49) Sunnybank: a suburb in Brisbane, Queensland, Australia much reduced in
size from the previous suburb of Sunnybank.
(50) This could be seen as the most serious charge against Australia’s status
as a multicultural nation. The sentence means this could be seen as the
most serious challenge against Australia’s status as a multicultural nation.
(51) embedded in: fix firmly.
(52) Jon Stratton: an Australian academic.
(53) Ghassan Hage (1957 - ): a Lebanese-Australian academic.
(54) it is important to distinguish between what we might call ‘ official ’
multiculturalism, on the one hand, and ‘ everyday ’
or ‘ ordinary ’
multiculturalism, on the other. — See Ghassan Hage, White Nation:
Fantasies of White Supremacy in a Multicultural Society, Sydney: Pluto,
1998; Jon Stratton, Race Daze: Australia’s identity Crisis, Sydney: Pluto,
1998.
(55) It is more multicultural than the notion of ‘Australian values’ and ‘unifying
commitments ’ want to acknowledge — diversity is already a great
distance further down the track than these conservative fantasies of
national management care to admit. The sentence means that diversity is
a longer way off than the conservative national managers would like to
230
admit. Australian values and unifying commitments inhibit the creation of a
diverse society.
New words
emulate
Israel
v.
n.
以色列
variation
riot
模仿
n.
变化
n.
暴乱
demographically
quote
引述
n.
dilution
多元主义
n.
冲淡
undermine
v.
monolingual
criteria
破坏
a.
单一语言的
n.
unevenly
urban
标准
ad.
不均衡地
a.
城市的
a.
农村的
potentially
enforced
ad.
潜在地
a.
bureaucrat
reverse
人口学地
v.
pluralism
rural
ad.
实施的
n.
官僚
n.
相反
231
predominant
a.
downplay
v.
booklet
不予重视
n.
小册子
chaperon
v.
assertion
n.
invoke
主要的
陪伴
声明
v.
祈求
decidedly
ad.
irresistible
a.
断然地
不可抵抗的
census
n.
人口普查
register
v.
登记
dispersal
cluster
mobility
explicit
n.
v.
聚集
n.
移动
a.
明确的
irreconcilable
mundane
分散
a.
不能协调的
a.
平凡
的
transact
v.
处理
Exercises
1. Make True or False judgments.
(1) According to James Jupp, given its high percentage of immigration,
232
Australia can be defined without doubt as a multicultural society.
(2) Nowadays about 50% of new Australian immigrants are from Asia.
(3) Michael Clyne has supported the point of view that Australia is a
multicultural country in his book Australia’s Language Potential.
(4) The Rudd government made no contributions to fostering a multicultural
society.
(5) The majority of Australians live in large cities where cultural diversity is
most concentrated.
2. Answer questions.
(1) What makes Australia an example of a multicultural country?
(2) Why does the author think Howard’s official definition of multiculturalism
means‘white multiculturalism’?
(3) What is the author’s conclusion of Australian multiculturalism?
6.2 Reading passage 2: Cultural attitudes and Aussie communicative style by
Cliff Goddard ①
(① Cliff Goddard: Chair in Linguistics, School of Behavioral, Cognitive and
Social Sciences; Language and Cognition Research Centre, University of New
233
England, New South Wales, Australia. “Cultural attitudes and Aussie
communicative style” by Cliff Goddard. 2006. “ Lift your game Martina! ” :
Deadpan Jocular Irony and the Ethnopragmatics of Australian English. In C.
Goddard (ed.). Ethnopragmatics: Understanding Discourse in Cultural Context
[M]. Berlin: MOUTON DE Gruyter. pp. 65-99.)
This section reviews a selection of values and attitudes which influence
traditional Aussie communicative style. Needless to say, it is not exhaustive.
One purpose of this review is to establish some of the more obvious and
distinctive characteristics of the Aussie speech culture, in implicit contrast with
major English-speaking countries such as the USA and Britain. In choosing
specific topics, however, I have kept one eye on the matter of deadpan jocular
irony (1), and we will see in due course that most of the following discussion
bears directly or indirectly on that more subtle practice.
“Thou shalt not try to be better than others.”
Many commentators have identified something like “egalitarianism”(2) as an
Australian social ideal, and despite the widening gap between rich and poor,
most commentators recognize that an “egalitarianism of manners”, to use
historian John Hirst’s (3) phrase, is still an important part of Australian social
life. Needless to say, however, a sophisticated label like this represents the
234
perspective of a sophisticated outsider, the perspective of a sociologist, a
historian or a political scientist. A description which comes closer to an insider’
s perspective, because it is framed in terms which are recognizable to insiders,
is offered by Donald Horne in his classic work The Lucky Country (4).
“Australians like people to be ordinary”, Horne says. They have “a deep belief
in the essential sameness and ordinariness of mankind”. “They think that all
people are the same, that what is good for oneself is good for anyone else”,
even to the point that “they seek similarity where often it does not exist- even
among themselves”. Sharp (5) illustrates this attitude by way of an incident in
1991. The then prime minister Bob Hawke (6) was interviewed for television in
the back of his limousine. Unfortunately for him, viewers could plainly see that
he had neglected to fasten his seatbelt, as is compulsory under Australian law.
The switchboard was jammed with more than 1000 calls. Sharp explains
Hawke’s reaction and the aftermath:
He said he was very sorry and asked the police to treat him like any other
citizen. He was duly fined A$100 for his lapse. In some societies, such public
criticism would be unthinkable. But Australians were quite happy to put the
matter out of their minds once justice had been done, the leader leveled.
Besides, they prefer their leaders that way: ordinary men, capable of
peccadillos.
235
Wierzbicka (7) has proposed the simple cultural script (8) in [A] to capture the
core idea.
[A] A cultural script for a characteristically Aussie social attitude
People think like this: it is good if other people can think like this about a
person: “this person is someone like me”.
The attitude portrayed in [A] is only the beginning, however. Wierzbicka argues
that there is a suite of (9) related attitudes, which can be captured in related
cultural scripts. For example, since “ being like other people ” is socially
desirable it follows that thinking of oneself as better than others, and hence as
not like others, will be disapproved of. This distaste for feeling of
self-importance can be stated as in script [B1]. Taking things a step further, it is
only natural that any one appears to want other people to think that he or she
is superior and unlike others will be disapproved of as stated in script [B2].
[B1] An Aussie cultural script discouraging feelings of self-importance
People think like this:
It is bad if someone thinks like this:
“I am someone very good
I am not like other people”
236
[B2] An Aussie cultural script discouraging wanting other people’s admiration
People think like this:
It is bad if someone thinks like this:
“I want other people to think like this about me:
‘ this person is someone very good
this person is not like other people’”
As one would expect from this set of scripts, conspicuous self-promotion,
efforts to impress, or merely seeking recognition of one ’ s special
achievements are likely to win only scorn in the Aussie ethos(cf. Peeters(10)
on the “tall poppy syndrome”(11)), while conversely efforts at modesty and
self-deprecation are admired.
The Australian humorist Robert Treborlang (originally from Hungary) has
satirized the “Low Key” style of self-presentation as follows:
Low key has to do with pretending that you’re a lot less than what others
think you are (if this is possible). … Achievements, assets, attitudes, should
only be referred to with badly constructed… you know… lots of punctuation
marks… sort of … obliquely… and how can one put it… Ambition must
also be heavily played down (12)and its hard-earned fruit should always be
attributed to…err…luck?
237
There is lexical evidence for the validity of these and related scripts in the
existence of, on the one hand, colloquial pejorative terms such as wanker,
smartarse and big head, negative speech act verbs (13) such as big-noting
oneself, and descriptors such as up oneself, on oneself, and uppity; and on the
other hand, positive social categories such as mate and mateship, and
solidarity practices such as altered surnames (like Thommo for Thompson,
Gibbo for Gibson) and “anti-diminutive ” first name forms, such as Shaz for
Sharon, Lozaa for Laurie, and so on.
There are of course numerous behavioral implications. McFayden (14)
includes “thou shalt not try to be better than others” as one of his three
“Australian cultural commandments”(15), and Sharp has a similar observation:
“The Australian does not want to appear too good at what he or she does, lest
this in some way offend or put down other people around him or her ”.
According to Sharp, this helps explain why “ an Australian worker will
sometimes look and sound much less competent or professional than he really
is”. Her advice to new comers: “Remember, you must play the game if you are
to get on with Australians. If you are successful or intelligent, hide it, or at least
actively play it down”.
Beal suggests that the “egalitarian” ideal helps explain a notable tendency
238
she found in Australians ’ responses to the typically Australian Monday
morning routine “did you have a good weekend?”. In her recordings and
interviews of employees in a French company, based in Australia, Beal
observed that whereas the French tended to play up (16) the dramatic and
unusual, the Australians preferred to give brief and unexciting factual replies
about predictable activities, such as going the beach or countryside, eating
and drinking, watching TV, socializing, and the like. Even when weekend
activities had been quite special, there was a tendency to downplay it by
describing the weekend as merely “ good ” . Beal suggests the following
explanation: “typical weekend activities that everybody does are preferred to
anything that might give the impression that one thinks oneself special or
superior”. Further illustration the “laconic” Australian style, Beal mentions
Rwanda (17) where she saw the famous gorillas. On the day she returned to
work, she was asked about her trip. “‘Well’, she said, ‘it was interesting… a bit
strenuous… it was… different’”.
Notes:
(1) deadpan jocular irony: defining a fairly widespread communicative
pattern. 不动声色的诙谐讽刺。
(2)“egalitarianism”: the doctrine of the equality of mankind and the desirability
of political and economic and social equality.
(3) John Hirst: a widely respected historian and social commentator. He wrote
239
the official history of Australia for new citizens.
(4) Donald Horne in his classic work The Lucky Country
Donald Horne (1921–2005): an Australian journalist, writer, social critic,
and academic who became one of Australia's best known public
intellectuals.The lucky country has a particular resonance. Donald Horne's
famous words have been used in numerous ways to describe everything
that is great about our nation. The phrase has been used to describe the
weather, the lifestyle and the history. It is often invoked to describe the
nation's good fortune, from gold booms to economic booms.
(5) Sharp (Rhonda Sharp): Adjunct Professor, University of South Australia
Adelaide Area, Australia.
(6) Bob Hawke: the 23rd Prime Minister of Australia and longest serving
Australian Labor Party Prime Minister.
(7) Wierzbicka (Anna Wierzbicka): a linguist at the Australian National
University.
(8) cultural script: a pattern of social interaction that is characteristic of a
particular cultural group.
(9) a suite of: a group of related things intended to be used together.
(10) Peeters---Bert Peeters: a professor of University of Tasmania.
(11) “tall poppy syndrome”: a pejorative term used to describe a social
phenomenon in which people of genuine merit are resented, attacked,
cut down, or criticized because their talents or achievements elevate
240
them above. 高罂粟花综合症。
(12) play down: to minimize the importance of.
(13) speech act verbs: 行为动词。
(14) McFayden (Stuart McFadyen): a professor of University of Alberta,
Canada.
(15) “ Australian cultural commandments ” : The “must-do’s” of Australian
culture.
(16) play up: to emphasize something; to be a booster of something.
(17) Rwanda: 卢旺达。
New words
Aussie
a./n.
exhaustive
implicit
澳洲的/澳大利亚人
a.
全面的
a.
deadpan
含蓄的
a.
毫无表情
的
jocular
a.
滑稽的
subtle
a.
微妙的
commentator
n.
评论
员
egalitarianism
frame
n.
平等主义
v.
设计
241
limousine
n.
plainly
豪华轿车
ad.
明白地
n.
座位安全带
seatbelt
switchboard
n.
接线总机
aftermath
n.
后果
peccadillo
n.
小过失
script
n.
脚本
characteristically
distaste
ad.
典型地
n.
厌恶
conspicuous
scorn
a.
显而易见的
n.
轻蔑
conversely
ad.
self-deprecation
Hungary
相反地
n.
自我贬低
n.
匈牙
利
satirize
asset
v.
讽刺
n.
obliquely
资产
ad.
转弯抹角地
lexical
a.
词汇的
validity
n.
有效性
colloquial
a.
口语体的
pejorative
a.
轻蔑的
242
wanker
uppity
n.
手淫的人
n.
solidarity
自负
a.
diminutive
团结一致
a.
commandment
微小的
n.
戒
律
laconic
gorilla
a.
简明的
n.
strenuous
大猩猩
a.
费力的
Exercises
1. Make True or False judgments.
(1) Australians seek similarity to the point that even where similarity does not
exist among themselves, they believe it does.
(2)The feeling of self-importance is highly appreciated.
(3) Self-importance is not popular but ambition is encouraged.
(4) Follow these communicative styles, as the author advises, if newcomers
want to get on with Australians.
(5)Australians like brevity.
2. Answer questions.
(1) How do you understand the simple cultural script in [A] proposed by
243
Wierzbicka?
(2) What kind of lifestyle is mainly recommended by the author?
(3) Does the sentence “thou shalt not try to be better than others” mean that
you should always be worst than others?
244
Chapter 7 Literature
7.1 Overview: From the bush myth to international recognition
John Mclaren, in his Australia Literature: An Historical
Introduction, divides Australian literature into the four following
periods (1989: 12-45).
245
7.1.1 The period of colonialism (1788---1888)
In 1787, Captain Phillip led the First Fleet with 757 prisoners and
arrived in Australia. This “ unknown ” continent soon became a convict
settlement. The early years of the settlement came to symbolize the beginning
of Australian Literature. The description of life and experience of convicts took
up an important chapter in the period of colonialism. The four writers are worth
mentioning.
First, Henry Savery (1791－1842) was an English convict transported to
Tasmania in 1853. His Quintus Servinton: a tale, founded on incidents of real
occurrence (1830), is regarded as the first Australian novel. It depicts a
convict’s experience autobiographically.
Secondly, Marcus Clarke (1846-1881) was another important early writer who
wrote For the Term of His Natural Life and was viewed as the best known
novel of life as a convict in early Australian literary history. The main role of For
the Term of His Natural Life was Rufus Dawes. He was a learned and innocent
British young man. Based on some coincidences, the story follows the fortunes
of Rufus Dawes who was transported for a murder he did not commit. The
novel clearly describes and conveys how the convicts were maltreated in the
penal colony.
246
Thirdly, Henry Kingsley (1830-1876) was called the greatest Australian author
of all time for his three volumes of The Recollections of Geoffrey Hamlyn. This
novel not only portrayed the conflicts between prisoners and governors but
provided a vivid picture of the struggles between immigrants and Aboriginals,
government and bushrangers, and squatters and their employers in the
colonial period.
Lastly, Rolf Bolderwood (1826-1915) was regarded as an important writer
whose Robbery Under Arms (1888) is considered to be one of the greatest
Australian colonial novels. Writing in the first person, the narrator Dick Marston
tells the story of his life and his association with the notorious bushranger
Captain Starlight, a renegade from a noble English family. Set in the bush and
goldfields of Australia in the 1850s, Starlight's gang, with Dick and his brother
Jim's help, sets out on a series of escapades that include cattle theft and
robbery under arms.
The poets of the period, Charles Harpur (1813-1870), Henry Kendall
(1839-1882), and Lindsay Gordon (1833-1870) described the natural
environment as a wild and empty world and expressed their desire for freedom,
equality and their bewilderment of the new land. Besides,
poets imitated the styles of William Wordsworth, John Byron and Shelley to
present the rough continent. The following is Charles Harpur’s
247
best-known poem “Midsummer Noon in the Australian Forest,” which reflects
the influence of Wordsworth, but also the independent, inventive spirit that
would characterize most of his works. The subject of his nature
poetry—mountains, trees, clouds, an endless sky, and bright starlight—carries
a sense of the enormity and depth of Australia itself
(Huang Yuanshen, 1986: 11-15 ).
A Midsummer Noon in the Australian Forest
By Charles Harpur (1813-1868)
Not a sound disturbs the air,
There is quiet everywhere,
Over plains and over woods
What a mighty stillness broods!
All the birds and insects keep
Where the coolest shadows sleep;
Even the busy ants are found
Resting in their pebbled mound;
Even the locust clingeth now
Silent to the Barky bough:
Over hills and over plains
248
Quiet, vast and slumberous, reigns.
Only there’s a drowsy humming
From yon warm lagoon slow coming,
Tis the dragon-hornet-see!
All bedaubed resplendently,
Yellow on a tawny ground –
Each rich spot nor square nor round,
Rudely heart-shaped, as it were
The blurred and hasty impress there
Of a vermeil-crusted seal
Dusted o’er with golden meal.
Only there’s a droning where
Yon bright beetle shines in air,
Tracks it in its gleaming flight
With a slanting beam of light,
Rising in the sunshine higher,
Till its shards flame out like fire.
Every other thing is still,
Save the ever-wakeful rill,
249
Whose cool murmur only throws
Cooler comfort round repose,
Or some ripple in the sea
Of leafy boughs, where, lazily,
Tired summer, in her bower
Turning with the noontide hour,
Heaves a slumberous breath ere she
Once more slumbers peacefully.
O’tis easeful here to lie
Hidden from noon’s scorching eye,
In this grassy cool recess
Musing thus of quietness.
(James Normington Rawling, 1966: 514-515)
7.1.2 The period of nationalism (1889-1913)
The most representative writers of this period were A.B. Paterson (1864-1941)
and Henry Lawson (1867-1923). Their national novels conveyed
a desire for equality and freedom, resentment towards their mother country,
and the longing for independence. Meanwhile, they used ballads and short
stores to depict the bush life: experiences of adventures, and early hardship on
the continent.
250
Henry Lawson was the best-known Australian poet and fiction writer, and is
often called Australia's greatest writer. Most of his work focuses on the
Australian bush. “The Drover's Wife” with its “heart-breaking depiction of
bleakness and loneliness” is regarded as one of his finest short stories.
Bushlife, mateship and capitalist development were the three features in
Lawson’s short stories. The true-to-life description of the wild dry land, and
hardship of the pioneers established the foundation of Australian realist
literature.
A.B. Paterson is a famous Australian bush poet, journalist and author. He
wrote many ballads and poems about Australian life, focusing particularly on
the rural and outback areas. Paterson's more notable poems are “Waltzing
Matilda”, “The Man from Snowy River” and “Clancy of the Overflow”. One of
his most famous poems is “Waltzing Matilda”, which was set to music and
became one of Australia's most famous songs. It nearly became the national
anthem back in 1974. In 1885, Peterson began submitting and having his
poetry published in the Sydney edition of The Bulletin under the pseudonym of
“The Banjo”, the name of his favorite horse. Paterson was an ardent nationalist,
and in 1889 published a pamphlet, Australia for the Australians which told of
his disdain for cheap labor and his admiration of hard work and the nationalist
spirit. In 1890, The Banjo wrote “The Man from Snowy River”, a poem which
251
caught the heart of the nation, and in 1895 had a collection of his works
published under that name. The following are his three poems.
The Man from Snowy River (1890) (来自雪河的人)
There was movement at the station, for the word had passed around
That the colt from old Regret had got away,
And had joined the wild bush horses - he was worth a thousand pound,
So all the cracks had gathered to the fray.
All the tried and noted riders from the stations near and far
Had mustered at the homestead overnight,
For the bushmen love hard riding where the wild bush horses are,
And the stockhorse snuffs the battle with delight.
There was Harrison, who made his pile when Pardon won the cup,
The old man with his hair as white as snow;
But few could ride beside him when his blood was fairly up He would go wherever horse and man could go.
And Clancy of the Overflow came down to lend a hand,
No better horseman ever held the reins;
For never horse could throw him while the saddle girths would stand He learnt to ride while droving on the plains.
252
And one was there, a stripling on a small and weedy beast;
He was something like a racehorse undersized.
With a touch of Timor pony - three parts thoroughbred at least And such as are by mountain horsemen prized.
He was hard and tough and wiry- just the sort that won't say die There was courage in his quick impatient tread;
And he bore the badge of gameness in his bright and fiery eye,
And the proud and lofty carriage of his head.
But still so slight and weedy, one would doubt his power to stay,
And the old man said, ‘That horse will never do
For a long and tiring gallop—lad, you’d better stop away,
Those hills are far too rough for such as you.’
So he waited, sad and wistful – only Clancy stood his friend –
‘ I think we ought to let him come,’ he said;
‘I warrant he’ll be with us when he’s wanted at the end,
For both his horse and he are mountain bred.
‘He hails from Snowy River, up by Kosciusko’s side,
Where the hills are twice as steep and twice as rough;
Where a horse’s hoofs strike firelight from the flint stones every stride,
The man that holds his own is good enough.
253
And the Snowy River riders on the mountains make their home,
Where the river runs those giant hills between;
I have seen full many horsemen since I first commenced to roam,
But nowhere yet such horsemen have I seen.’
So he went; they found the horses by the big mimosa clump.
They raced away towards the mountain’s brow,
And the old man gave his orders, ‘Boys, go at them from the jump,
No use to try for fancy riding now.
And, Clancy, you must wheel them, try and wheel them to the right.
Ride boldly, lad, and never fear the spills,
For never yet was rider that could keep the mob in sight,
If once they gain the shelter of those hills.’
So Clancy rode to wheel them—he was racing on the wing
Where the best and boldest riders take their place
And he raced his stock-horse past them, and he made the ranges ring
With the stockwhip, as he met them face to face.
Then they halted for a moment, while he swung the dreaded lash,
But they saw their well-loved mountain full in view,
And they charged beneath the stockwhip with a sharp and sudden dash,
And off into the mountain scrub they flew.
254
Then fast the horsemen followed, where the gorges deep and black
Resounded to the thunder of their tread,
And the stockwhips woke the echoes, and they fiercely answered back
From cliffs and crags that beetled overhead.
And upward, ever upward, the wild horses held their way,
Where mountain ask and kurrajong grew wide;
And the old man muttered fiercely, ‘We may bid the mob good day,
No man can hold them down the other side.’
When they reached the mountain’s summit, even Clancy took a pull –
It well might make the boldest hold their breath;
The wild hop scrub grew thickly, and the hidden ground was full
Of wombat holes, and any slip was death.
But the man from Snowy River let the pony have his head,
And he swung his stockwhip round and gave a cheer,
And he raced him down the mountain like a torrent down its bed,
While the others stood and watched in very fear.
He sent the flint-stones flying, but the pony kept his feet,
He cleared the fallen timber in his stride,
And the man from Snowy River never shifted in his seat –
It was grand to see that mountain horseman ride.
Through the stringy barks and saplings, on the rough and broken ground,
Down the hillside at a racing pace he went;
255
And he never drew the bridle till he landed safe and sound
At the bottom of that terrible descent.
He was right among the horses as they climbed the farther hill,
And the watchers on the mountain, standing mute,
Saw him ply the stockwhip fiercely; he was right among them still,
As he raced across the clearing in pursuit.
Then they lost him for a moment, where two mountain gullies met
In the ranges—but a final glimpse reveals
On a dim and distant hillside the wild horses racing yet,
With the man from Snowy River at their heels.
And he ran them single-handed till their sides were white with foam;
He followed like a bloodhound on their track,
Till they halted, cowed and beaten; then he turned their heads for home,
And alone and unassisted brought them back.
But his hardy mountain pony he could scarcely raise a trot,
He was blood from hip to shoulder from the spur;
But his pluck was still undaunted, and his courage fiery hot,
For never yet was mountain horse a cur.
And down by Kosciusko, where the pine-clad ridges raise
256
Their torn and rugged battlements on high,
Where the air is clear as crystal, and the white stars fairly blaze
At midnight in the cold and frosty sky,
And where around the Overflow the reed-beds sweep and sway
To the breezes, and the rolling plains are wide,
The Man from Snowy River is a household word today,
And the stockmen tell the story of his ride.
(Chen Zhengfa, 1999: 110-114)
Waltzing Matilda (1903) （背着铺盖去流浪）
Oh there once was a swagman camped in the billabong,
Under the shade of a coolibah tree,
And he sang as he watched and waited ‘til his billy boiled,
“You'll come a-Waltzing Matilda, with me”.
Waltzing Matilda, Waltzing Matilda
“You'll come a-Waltzing Matilda, with me”
And he sang as he watched and waited ‘til his billy boiled,
“You'll come a-Waltzing Matilda, with me”.
Down came the jumbuck to drink at the billabong,
Up jumped the swagman and grabbed him with glee,
257
And he sang as he shoved that jumbuck in his tucker bag,
“You'll come a-Waltzing Matilda, with me”.
Waltzing Matilda, Waltzing Matilda
“You'll come a-Waltzing Matilda, with me”.
And he sang as he shoved that jumbuck in his tucker bag,
“You'll come a-Waltzing Matilda, with me”.
Down came the squatter, mounted on his thoroughbres,
Up came the troopers, one, two, three,
“Where’s that jolly jumbuck you’ve got in your tucker bag?”
“You'll come a-Waltzing Matilda, with me”.
Waltzing Matilda, Waltzing Matilda
“You'll come a-Waltzing Matilda, with me”.
“Where’s that jolly jumbuck you’ve got in your tucker bag?”
“You'll come a-Waltzing Matilda, with me”.
Up jumped the swagman and sprang into the billabong,
“You’ll never catch me alive”, said he.
And his ghost may be heard as you pass by that billabong,
“You'll come a-Waltzing Matilda, with me”.
258
Waltzing Matilda, Waltzing Matilda
“You'll come a-Waltzing Matilda, with me”.
And his ghost may be heard as you pass by that billabong,
“You'll come a-Waltzing Matilda, with me”.
(Zhang Yongxian, 2010: 116-117)
Clancy of the Overflow (1890) （河泛区的克朗西）
I had written him a letter which I had, for want of better
Knowledge, sent to where I met him down the Lachlan, years ago,
He was shearing when I knew him, so I sent the letter to him,
Just ‘on spec’, addressed as follows, ‘Clancy, of The Overflow’.
And an answer came directed in a writing unexpected,
(And I think the same was written with a thumb-nail dipped in tar)
‘Twas his shearing mate who wrote it, and verbatim I will quote it: ‘Clancy's
gone to Queensland droving, and we don't know where we are.’
In my wild erratic fancy visions come to me of Clancy
Gone a-droving ‘down the Cooper’ where the Western drovers go;
As the stock are slowly stringing, Clancy rides behind them singing,
For the drover's life has pleasures that the townsfolk never know.
259
And the bush hath friends to meet him, and their kindly voices greet him In the
murmur of the breezes and the river on its bars,
And he sees the vision splendid of the sunlit plains extended,
And at night the wond'rous glory of the everlasting stars.
I am sitting in my dingy little office where a stingy
Ray of sunlight struggles feebly down between the houses tall,
And the foetid air and gritty of the dusty, dirty city
Through the open window floating, spreads its foulness over all.
And in place of lowing cattle, I can hear the fiendish rattle
Of the tramways and the buses making hurry down the street,
And the language uninviting of the gutter children fighting,
Comes fitfully and faintly through the ceaseless tramp of feet.
And the hurrying people daunt me, and their pallid faces haunt me
As they shoulder one another in their rush and nervous haste,
With their eager eyes and greedy, and their stunted forms and weedy,
For townsfolk have no time to grow, they have no time to waste.
And I somehow rather fancy that I'd like to change with Clancy,
Like to take a turn at droving where the seasons come and go,
260
While he faced the round eternal of the cash-book and the journalBut I doubt he'd suit the office, Clancy, of ‘The Overflow.’
(Xia Yuhe and Li Youwen, 2008: 336-337).
In the period of nationalism, the Bulletin played a vital role in advocating the
Australian independence. The Bulletin is a discontinued Australian weekly
magazine that was published in Sydney from 1880 until January 2008. It was
influential in Australian culture and politics from about 1890 until World War I,
the period when it was identified with the “Bulletin school” of Australian
literature. The contributions made by the “ Bulletin ” began the history of
Australian nationalist literature. The Bulletin, for the first time, expressed that
Australia is Australians, and Australia is Australians’ mother country. Bushman
was a symbol of Australian character. “A Song of the Republic” was Lawson’
s first poem published in the Bulletin in 1887 and “His Father’s Mate” was his
first short story published in 1888. “A Drover’s Wife”was published in 1892.
Peterson's poem “The Man from Snowy River” published in the Bulletin in
1890.
7.1.3 The period of the world wars (1914--1945)
Australia in the years of 1914-1943 experienced the first and second world
wars, the Great Depression, and the post-war economic boom. The
development of the economy reinforced the maturity of the Australian national
261
consciousness. The experiences of two wars enhanced the self-confidence of
the nation, and helped the country become one of the major countries in the
world.
Many writers followed Lawson’s nationalistic traditions. Their works described
the war experience and presented pictures of the Great Depression. Vance
Palmer (1885-1955): Men are human (1930); Christiana Stead (1902-1983):
The Man Who Loved Children (1940); Kylie Tennant (1912-1988): The Man on
the Headland (1971); Leonard Mann (1895-1981): Flesh in Armour: A Novel
(1932); Frank Dalby Davison (1893-1970): The Wells of Beersheba (1933);
Katharine Susannah Prichard (1883-1969): The Pioneers (1915); Miles
Franklin (1879–1954): My Brilliant Career (1901).
Non-mainstream novels attained a new stage, represented by Norman Lindsay
(1879-1969), Chester Cobb (1899-1943), and Henry Richardson (1870–1946).
These three writers were regarded as the first Australian-born novelists who
employed
a “stream of consciousness” technique in their works. Norman
Linsay’s The Magic Pudding (1918) is a comic fantasy, a classic of Australian
children's literature. The story is set in Australia with humans mixing with
anthropomorphic animals. It tells of a magic pudding which, no matter how
often it is eaten, always reforms in order to be eaten again. Chester Cobb
(1899-1943) published two novels: Mr. Moffatt (1925) and Days of Disillusion
262
(1926) which reflected the spiritual odyssey of the main characters and derived
from an interest in religion which led Cobb to question Christianity as a youth
and ultimately embrace theosophy in England. Henry Richardson (1870～
1946) was nominated for the 1932 Nobel Prize because of his contribution
The Fortunes of Richard Mahony (1930) to Australian and world literature.
7.1.4 The contemporary period (1946-now)
In this period, Australian literature stepped onto the international stage and
obtained wide acclaim. The post-war economic boom and rapid economic
growth brought about the most prosperous development of Australian literature.
Whitian novels were represented by Patrick White, Randolph Stow, Tomas
Kenealy and others, who explored the inner world of human beings and
explored modern society. Their writing styles were closer to European and
American styles. In 1973, White became the first Australian to win the Nobel
Prize for Literature, “for an epic and psychological narrative art, which has
introduced a new continent into literature.” From 1935 until his death, he
published 12 novels, two short-story collections and eight plays. His fiction
freely
employs
shifting
narrative
vantage
points
and
a
stream of
consciousness technique. His main works include The Tree of Man (1955);
Voss（1957）; Riders in the Chariot（ 1961）; The Eye of the Storm (1973);
A Fringe of Leaves (1976).
263
The second representative writer of the Whitian style was Randolph Stow. He
won the Miles Franklin Award in 1958 for his novel To the Islands, which
explored relations between Indigenous and white Australians based on his
experience at an Anglican mission. His masterpiece The Merry-Go-Round in
the Sea evoked his childhood growing up around Geraldton in the 1940s. He
died in a hospital on Saturday near his home in the Essex village of Old
Harwich.
Tomas Kenealy was another writer of the Whitian style. He is best known for
writing Schindler’s List, The book tells the story of Osker Schindler, , a Nazi
Party member, who turns into an unlikely hero. By the end of the war,
Schindler has saved 1,200 Jews from concentration camps all over Poland
and Germany. It is a historical novel which describes actual people and events
with fictional dialogue and scenes added by the author.
Another important genre in the contemporary literature is the neo-novel which
was represented by Michael Wilding and Frank Moorhouse, which advocated
a freer way of writing and novelty in narration, using narrative methods and
moods. Michael Wilding’s famous works contain Milton’s Paradise Lost (1969);
Living Together (1974). The novels of Frank Moorhouse were Forty-Seventeen
(1988) and Grand Days (1993).
In the contemporary period of Australian literature, besides the achievements
264
of Whitian novels and neo-novels, playwrights such as David Williamson (1942
-) and Alexander Buzo (1944–2006) are worth mentioning. David Williamson is
one of Australia's best-known playwrights. His major works include Don’t Party
(1971); Jugglers Three (1972); The Department (1975) and The Club (1977).
The Club is Williamson’s most technically assured piece of work to date. He
takes on the fanatical world of sport and concentrates on those who are
obsessed by it. In this play, Jock, Ted and Laurie are locked in mortal combat;
Gerry manipulates them; Danny and Geoff are incensed by the process but
must live with it. Thus, it is not only a truthful tale about football but a
dissertation on politics and a microcosm of the world outside (Lou Richards
and Ian Turner, 1978: 75-76).
He also collaborated on the screenplays for Gallipoli (1981) and The Year of
Living Dangerously (1982). Williamson's work as a playwright focuses on
themes of politics, loyalty and family in contemporary urban Australia,
particularly in two of its major cities, Melbourne and Sydney. Alexander Buzo
was an Australian playwright and author who wrote 88 works. His most famous
work contains The Front Room Boys (1970) and Macquarie (1971) (Huang
Yuanshen, 1997: 123-135).
New Words
bushranger
escapade
n.
以丛林为藏身之地的逃犯
n.
逃
265
脱
enormity
brood
n.
巨大
v.
pebbled
沉寂
a.
mound
垒起的
n.
小
丘
locust
n.
蝉
clingeth = cling
barky
v.
紧贴着
a.
bough
树皮
n.
枝
干
slumberous
reign
a.
昏昏欲睡的
v.
盛行
yon=yonder
drowsy
a.
那边的
a.
humming
沉寂的
n.
嗡嗡作
响
lagoon
n.
泻湖
‘Tis = it is
dragon-hornet
bedaubed
tawny
n.
大黄蜂
v.
把…装饰得俗丽
n.
褐色
266
blurred
a.
hasty
模糊不清的
a.
匆忙的
vermeil
n.
朱红色
crusted
a.
干硬的
seal
n.
印记
droning
n.
beetle
track
嗡嗡的声音
n.
甲虫
n.
小道
gleaming
a.
slanting
微光的
a.
beam
倾斜的
n.
光
n.
薄硬壳
线
shard
save
rill
prep.
除了
n.
repose
小溪
v.
静止
ripple
n.
波纹
bower
n.
树阴处
noontide
breath
n.
午夜
n.
微风
ere =before
easeful
a.
宁静的
267
scorching
recess
a.
烧焦的
n.
muse
隐蔽处
v.
凝
望
escapade
n.
胆大妄
为
resentment
bleakness
ballad
n.
愤恨
n.
荒凉
n.
pseudonym
民谣
n.
笔
名
colt
n.
crack
小马
n.
fray
裂缝声
n.
muster
喧闹
v.
homestead
集合
n.
田
地
snuff
v.
扑灭
pile
v.
积累
rein
v.
控制
saddle
girth
n.
马鞍
n.
围长
268
drove
v.
赶牲口
stripling
n.
weedy
小伙儿
a.
瘦
的
undersized
pony
a.
n.
小马
thoroughbred
prized
wiry
不够大的
a.
优秀的
a.
被看成有价值的
a.
tread
坚硬的
n.
步伐
fiery
a.
火一般的
lofty
a.
高傲的
gallop
lad
n.
n.
wistful
小伙子
a.
warrant
stride
保证
v.
Kosciusko
flint
渴望的
v.
breed
hoof
疾驰
饲养
n.
考修斯科山（澳大利亚最高山峰，位于新南威尔士州）
n.
蹄
n.
燧石
n.
大步走
269
roam
n.
漫
步
nowhere
n.
任何地
方
mimosa
n.
含羞
草
clump
n.
brow
草丛
n.
山脊
spill
n.
从马上摔下来
rider
n.
骑手
stockwhip
halt
长鞭
v.
swing
lash
n.
停下来
v.
摇摆
n.
鞭子
dash
n.
猛撞
scrub
n.
矮树
resound
tread
crag
v.
n.
行走
n.
beetle
峭壁
v.
kurrajong
mutter
回响
突出
n.
（澳大利亚）异叶瓶木
v.
咕哝
270
bid
v.
hop
表示
n.
scrub
蛇麻
n.
wombat
草丛
n.
（澳）袋
鼠
torrent
n.
timber
n.
stringy
a.
纤维的
sapling
n.
树苗
bridle
奔流
木材
n.
descent
mute
缰绳
n.
斜坡
a.
无声的
dim
a.
暗淡的
heel
n.
踵
foam
n.
bloodhound
track
淌汗
n.
侦探
n.
cowed
小道
a.
被震吓
的
hardy
a.
trot
n.
hip
n.
坚强的
马小跑的步态
臀部
271
spur
n.
pluck
骑马疾驰
n.
勇气
undaunted
fiery
cur
clad
a.
勇敢的
v.
炽烈
n.
杂狗
a.
ridge
覆盖的
n.
山脉
battlement
blaze
n.
墙垛
v.
照耀
reed
n.
芦苇
sway
v.
摇摆
stockmen
n.
畜牧业
者
swagman
n.
流浪
billabong
n.
死河
coolibah
n.
综桉
汉
billy
n.
jumbuck
waterhole
glee
伙伴
n.
绵羊
n.
水坑
n.
tucker-bag
快乐
n.
食品盒
272
drown
v.
overflow
n.
shear
泛滥
v.
spec
tar
淹死
修剪
n.
冒险
n.
焦油
verbatim
ad.
erratic
a.
cooper
n.
string
逐字地
漂泊不定的
桶
v.
串起来
townsfolk
n.
murmur
小镇居民
n.
低
语
breeze
n.
微风吹
sunlit
a.
dingy
a.
昏暗的
stingy
a.
小气的
ray
阳光照射的
n.
光线
feebly
a.
无力的
foetid
a.
恶臭的
gritty
a.
多沙的
float
v.
foulness
移动，晃动
n.
纠缠
273
fiendish
rattle
a.
不好听的
n.
格格声
tramway
n.
走车的
路
uninviting
a.
不吸引人的
gutter
n.
沟
fitfully
ad.
tramp
n.
脚步
daunt
v.
恫吓
pallid
a.
haunt
v.
断断续续地
苍白的
出没
greedy
a.
贪婪的
stunted
a.
矮小的
weedy
a.
杂草
的
eternal
a.
odyssey
永恒的
n.
theosophy
ardent
n.
神智学
a.
pamphlet
epic
奥德塞
热心的
n.
小册子
a.
vantage
史诗
n.
优势
274
technically
fanatical
mortal
ad.
技术地
a.
狂热的
a.
致死的
manipulate
incensed
v.
操纵
a.
愤怒的
dissertation
n.
论文
microcosm
n.
微观世
界
Exercises
1. Explain terms.
(1) Henry Lawson
(2) Andrew Barton Paterson
(3) the Bulletin
(4) Australian nationalist literature
(5) non-mainstream novels
(7) David Williamson
(6) Patrick White
(8) the Aboriginal literature
2. Answer questions.
(1) What are the four periods of Australian literature?
(2) Why does Lawson always take mateship as the theme of his stories?
(3) How do you understand the term “mateship”?
3. Questions for further consideration.
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(1) Why is A. D. Hope regarded as a pioneer of Australian poetry?
(2) In what ways do you think Australian literature has developed differently
from British or American literature?
(3) What is the impact of recent Asian immigration on Australian literature?
7.2 Reading passage: The Drover’s wife by Henry Lawson ①
（①Henry Lawson (1867–1922): an Australian writer and poet. “The
Drover’s wife”, written by Henry Lawson, is taken from Australia
literature themes & selected readings [M] edited by Su Yong. 2004.
Beijing: Peking University Press. pp. 11-23.）
The two-roomed house is built of round timber, slabs, and string-bark,
and floored with split slabs. A big bark kitchen standing at one end is
larger than the house itself, veranda included.
Bush all around-bush with no horizon, for the country is flat. No ranges
in the distance. The bush consists of stunted, rotten native apple-trees.
No undergrowth. Nothing to relieve the eyes save the darker green of a
few she-oaks which are sighing above the narrow, almost waterless creek.
Nineteen miles to the nearest sign of civilization—a shanty on the main
road.
The drover, an ex-squatter, is away with sheep. His wife and children
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are left here alone.
Four ragged, dried-up-looking children are playing about the house.
Suddenly one of them yells:“Snake! Mother, here’s a snake!”
The gaunt, sun-browned bushwoman dashes from the kitchen, snatches her
baby from the ground, holds it on her left hip, and reaches for a stick.
“Where is it?”
“Here ! Gone in the wood-heap;” yells the eldest boy—a sharpfaced urchin
of eleven. “ Stop there, mother! I ’ll have him. Stand back! I ’ll have the
beggar(1)!”
“Tommy, come here, or you’ll be bit. Come here at once when I tell you, you
little wretch!”
The youngster comes reluctantly, carrying a stick bigger than himself. Then he
yells, triumphantly:
“There it goes----under the house!” and darts away with club uplifted. At the
same time the big, black, yellow-eyed dog-of-all-breeds, who has shown the
wildest interest in the proceedings, breaks his chain and rushes after that
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snake. He is a moment late, however, and his nose reaches the crack in the
slabs just as the end of its tail disappears. Almost at the same moment the
boy’s club comes down and skins the aforesaid (2) nose. Alligator (3) takes
small notice of this, and proceeds to undermine the building; but he is subdued
after a struggle and chained up. They cannot afford to lose him.
The drover’s wife makes the children stand together near the dog-house while
she watches for the snake. She gets two small dishes of milk and sets them
down near the wall to tempt it to come out; but an hour goes by and it does not
show itself.
It is near sunset, and a thunderstorm is coming. The children must
be brought inside. She will not take them into the house, for she knows
the snake is there, and may at any moment come up through a crack in the
rough slab floor; so she carries several armfuls of firewood into the
kitchen, and then takes the children there. The kitchen has no floor---or,
rather, an earthen one—called a “ground floor” in this part of the bush.
There is a large, roughly—made table in the centre of the place. She
brings the children in, and makes them get on this table. They are two
boys and two girls---mere babies. She gives some supper, and then, before
it gets dark, she goes into house, and snatches up some pillows and
bedclothes---- expecting to see or lay or hand on(4)the snake any minute.
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She makes a bed on the kitchen table for the children, and sits down beside
it to watch all night.
She has an eye on the corner, and a green sapling club laid in readiness
on the dresser by her side; also her sewing basket and a copy of the Young
Ladies’ Journal. She has brought the dog into the room.
Tommy turns in, under protest, but says he’ll lie awake all night
and smash that blinded snake(5).
His mother asks him how many times she has told not to swear.
He has his club with him under the bed clothes, and Jacky protests:
“Mummy! Tommy’s skinnin’ me alive wif his club(6). Make him take it
out.”
Tommy: “Shet up you little----!(7) D’yer want to be bit with the snake? ”
Jacky shuts up.
“If yer bit,”(8) says Tommy, after a pause, “you’ll swell up, an smell,
an’turn red an’blue all over till yer bust(9). Won’t he, mother?”
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“Now then, don’t frighten the child. Go to sleep,” she says.
The two younger children go to sleep, and now and then Jacky complains
of being “skeezed.(10)” More room is made for him. Presently Tommy says:
“Mother! Listen to them (adjective) (11) little possums. I’d like to
screw their blanky (12)necks.”
And Jacky protests drowsily.
“But they don’t hurt us, the little blanks!”
Mother: “There, I told you you’d teach Jacky to swear.” But the
remark makes her smile. Jacky goes to sleep.
Presently Tommy asks:
“Mother! Do you think they’ll ever extricate the (adjective)kangaroo.”
“Lord! How am I to know, child? Go to sleep.”
“Will you wake me if the snake comes out? ”
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“Yes. Go to sleep.”
Near midnight. The children are all asleep and she sits there still,
sewing and reading by turns. From time to time she glances round the floor
and wall-plate, and, whenever she hears a noise, she reaches for the stick.
The thunderstorm comes on, and the wind, rushing through the cracks in
the slab wall, threatens to blow out her candle. She places it on a
sheltered part of the dresser and fixes up a newspaper to protect it. At
every flash of lightning, the cracks between the slabs gleam like polished
silver. The thunder rolls, and the rain comes down in torrents.
Alligator lies at full length (13) on the floor, with his eyes turned
towards the partition. She knows by this that the snake is there. There
are large cracks in that wall opening under the floor of the
dwelling-house.
She is not a coward, but recent events have shaken her nerves. A little
son of her brother-in-law was lately bitten by a snake, and died. Besides,
she has not heard from her husband for six months, and is anxious about
him.
He was a drover, and started squatting (14) here when they were married.
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The drought of 18—ruined him. He had to sacrifice the remnant of his flock
and go droving again. He intends to move his family into the nearest town
when he comes back, and, in the meantime, his brother, who keeps a shanty
on the main road, comes over about once a month with provisions. The wife
has still a couple of cows, one horse, and a few sheep. The brother-in-law
kills one of the latter occasionally, gives her what she needs of it, and
takes the rest in return for other provisions.
She is used to being left alone. She once lived like this for eighteen
months. As a girl she built the usual castles in the air; but all her
girlish hopes and aspirations have long been dead.(15) She finds all the
excitement and recreation she needs in the Young Ladies’Journal, and
Heaven help her! Takes a pleasure in the fashion plates.
Her husband is an Australian, and so is she. He is careless, but a
good enough husband. If he had the means (16)he would take her to the city
and keep her there like a princess. They are used to being apart, or at
least she is. “No use fretting,(17)” she says. He may forget sometimes
that he is married; but if he has a good cheque(18) when he comes back
he will give most of it to her. When he had money he took her to the city
several times---hired a railway sleeping compartment, and put up at the
best hotels. He also bought her a buggy, but they had to sacrifice that
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along with the rest.
The last two children were born in the bush----one while her husband
was bringing a drunken doctor, by force, to attend to (19)her. She was
alone on this occasion, and very weak. She had been ill with fever. She
prayed to God to send her assistance. God sent Black Mary (20)----the
“whitest” gin in all the land. Or, at least, God sent King Jimmy (21) first, and he
sent Black Mary. He put his black face round the door post, took in(22) the
situation at a glance, and said cheerfully: “All right, missus----I bring my old
woman, she down alonga creek(23).”
One of the children died while she was here alone. She rode nineteen miles for
assistance, carrying the dead child.
It must be near one or two o’clock. The fire is burning low. Alligator lies with his
head resting on his paws, and watches the wall. He is not a very beautiful dog,
and the light shows numerous old wounds where the hair will not grow. He is
afraid of nothing on the face of the earth or under it. He will tackle a bullock as
readily as he will tackle a flea. He hates all other dogs--- except kangaroo dogs
(24)—and has a marked dislike to friends or relations of the family. They
seldom call, however. He sometimes makes friends with strangers. He hates
snakes and has killed many, but he will be bitten some day and die; most
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snake-dogs (25) end that way.
Now and then the bushwoman lays down her work and watches, and listens,
and thinks. She thinks of things in her own life, for there is little else to think
about.
The rain will make the grass grow, and this reminds her how she fought a
bush-fire once while her husband was away. The grass was long, and very dry,
and the fire threatened to burn her out. She put on an old pair of her husband’
s trousers and beat out the flames with a green bough, till great drops of sooty
perspiration stood out on her forehead and ran in streaks(26) down her
blackened arms. The sight of his mother in trousers greatly amused Tommy,
who worked like a little hero by her side, but the terrified baby howled lustily for
his “mummy.” The fire would have mastered her but for four excited bushmen
who arrived in the nick of time(27). It was a mixed-up affair all round(28); when
she went to take up the baby he screamed and struggled convulsively, thinking
it was a “blackman;” and Alligator, trusting more to the child’s sense than his
own instinct, charged furiously, and (being old and slightly deaf) did not in his
excitement at first recognise his mistress’s voice, but continued to hang on to
the moleskins until choked off by Tommy with a saddle-strap. The dog’s
sorrow for his blunder, and his anxiety to let it be known that it was all a
mistake, was as evident as his ragged tail and a twelve-inch grin could make it.
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It was a glorious time for the boys; a day to look back to, and talk about, and
laugh over for many years.
She thinks how she fought a flood during her husband’s absence. She stood
for hours in the drenching downpour, and dug an overflow gutter to save the
dam across the creek. But she could not save it. There are things that a
bushwoman cannot do. Next morning the dam was broken, and her heart was
nearly broken too, for she thought how her husband would feel when he came
home and saw the result of years of labour swept away. She cried then.
She also fought the pleuro-pneumonia----dosed and bled (29)the few
remaining cattle, and wept again when her two best cows died.
Again, she fought a mad bullock that besieged the house for a day. She made
bullets and fired at him through cracks in the slabs with an old shot-gun. He
was dead in the morning. She skinned him and got seventeen-and-sixpence
for the hide.
She also fights the crows and eagles that have designs on her chickens. Her
plan of campaign is very original. The children cry “Crows, mother!”
and she rushes out and aims a broomstick at the birds as though it were a gun,
and says “Bung!” The crows leave in a hurry; they are cunning, but a woman’
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s cunning is greater.
Occasionally a bushman in the horrors (30), or a villainous-looking sundowner,
comes and nearly scares the life out of her. She generally tells the
suspicious-looking stranger that her husband and two sons are at work below
the dam, or over at the yard, for he always cunningly inquires for the boss (31).
Only last week a gallows-faced swagman-having satisfied himself that there
were no men on the place---threw his swag down on the veranda, and
demanded tucker. She gave him something to eat; then he expressed the
intention of staying for the night. It was sundown then. She got a batten from
the sofa, loosened the dog, and confronted the stranger, holding the batten in
one hand and the dog’s collar with the other. “Now you go!”
she said. He looked at her and at the dog, said “All right, mum,” in a cringing
tone and left. She was a determined-looking woman, and Alligator’s yellow
eyes glared unpleasantly---besides, the dog’s chawing-up apparatus greatly
resembled that of the reptile he was named after.
She has few pleasures to think of as she sits here alone by the fire, on guard
against a snake. All days are much the same for her; but on Sunday afternoon
she dresses herself, tidies the children smartens up baby, and goes for a
lonely walk along the bush-track, pushing an old perambulator in front of her.
286
She does this every Sunday. She takes as much care to make herself and the
children look smart as she would if she were going to do the block in the city
(32). There is nothing to see, however, and not a soul (33) to meet. You might
walk for twenty miles along this track without being able to fix appoint (34) in
your mind, unless you are a bushman. This is because of the everlasting,
maddening sameness of the stunted trees--- that monotony which makes a
man long to break away and travel as far as trains can go, and sail as far as
ship can sail--- and farther.
But this bushwoman is used to the loneliness of it. As a girl-wife she hated it,
but now she would feel strange away from it.
She is glad when her husband returns, but she does not gush or make a fuss
about (35) it. She gets him something good to eat, and tidies up the children.
She seems contented with her lot. She loves her children, but has not time to
show it. She seems harsh to them. Her surroundings are not favourable to the
development of the “womanly” or sentimental side of nature.
It must be nearing morning now; but the clock is in the dwelling-house. Her
candle is nearly done; she forgot that she was out of candles. Some more
wood must be got to keep the fire up, and so she shuts the dog instead and
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hurries around to the woodheap. The rain has cleared off. She seizes a stick,
pulls it out, and---crash! The whole pile collapses.
Yesterday she bargained with a stray blackfellow to bring her some wood, and
while he was at work she went in search of a missing cow. She was absent an
hour or so, and the native black made good use of his time. On her return she
was so astonished to see a good heap of wood by the chimney, and she gave
him an extra fig of tobacco, and praised him for not being lazy. He thanked her,
and left with head erect and chest well out. He was the last of his tribe and a
King（36）; but he had built that wood-heap hollow.
She is hurt now, and tears spring to her eyes as she sits down again by the
table. She takes up a handkerchief to wipe the tears away, but poles her eyes
with her bare fingers instead. The handkerchief is full of holes, and she finds
that she has put here thumb through one, and her forefinger through another.
This makes her laugh, to the surprise of the dog. She has a keen, very keen,
sense of the ridiculous; and sometime or other she will amuse bushmen with
the story.
She has been amused before like that. One day she sat down “to have a good
cry,” as she said---and the old cat rubbed against her dress and “cried too.”
288
Then she had to laugh.
It must be near daylight now. The room is very close and hot because of the
fire. Alligator still watches the wall from time to time. Suddenly he becomes
greatly interested; he draws himself a few inches nearer the partition, and a
thrill runs though his body. The hair on the back of his neck begins to bristle,
and the battle-light is in his yellow eyes. She knows what this means, and lays
her hand on the stick. The lower end of one of the partition slabs has a large
crack on both sides. An evil pair of small, bright bead-like eyes listen at one of
these holes. The snake—a black one--- comes slowly out, about a foot, and
moves its head up and down. The dog lies still, and the woman sits as one
fascinated. The snake comes out a foot further. She lifts her stick, and the
reptile, as though suddenly aware of danger, sticks his head in through the
crack on the other side of the slab, and hurries to get his tail round after him.
Alligator springs, and his jaws come together with a snap. He misses, for his
nose is large, and the snake’s body close down on the angle formed by the
slabs and the floor. He snaps again as the tail comes round. He has the snake
now, and tugs it out eighteen inches. Thud, thud. Alligator gives another pull
and he has the snake out--- a black brute, five feet long. The head rises to dart
about, but the dog has the enemy close to the neck. He is a big, heavy dog, but
quick as a terrier. He shakes the snakes as though he felt the original curse
(37) in common with mankind. The eldest boy wakes up, seizes his stick, and
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tries to get out of bed, but his mother forces him back with a grip of iron. Thud,
thud----the snake’s back is broken in several places. Thud, thud---its head is
crushed, and Alligator’s nose skinned again.
She lifts the mangled reptile on the point of her stick, carries it to the fire, and
throws it in; then piles on the wood and watches the snake burn. The boy and
the dog watch too. She lays her hand on the dog’s head, and all the fierce,
angry light dies out of his yellow eyes. The younger children are quieted, and
presently go to sleep. The dirty-legged boy stands for a moment in his shirt,
watching the fire. Presently he looks up at her, sees the tears in her eyes, and,
throwing his arms around her neck exclaims:
“Mother, I won’t never go drovin’blarst me if I do!(38)”
And she hugs him to her worn-out breast and kisses him; and they sit thus
together while the sickly daylight breaks over the bush.
Notes:
(1) beggar: snake.
(2) aforesaid a.= mentioned above, that is, a dog’s sense.
(3) Alligator: the dog name of the drover’s family.
(4) lay or hand on: find or catch.
(5) blinded snake: bloody snake.
290
(6) skinnin’ me alive wif his club: beating sb; wif: with; Australian English;
informal.
(7) Shet up: shut up, swear word.
(8) If yer bit = If you are bitten.
(9) an’turn red an’blue all over till yer bust: your face turns red until you pass
out if you get bitten by the snake.
(10) being skeezed: being squeezed， Australian English; informal.
(11)(adjective) = dirty word omitted here.
(12) blanky: blank = bloody or damned.
(13) at full length: adequately
(14) started squatting: started settling down.
(15) As a girl she built the usual castles in the air; but all her
girlish hopes and aspirations have long been dead: as a girl, she had
aspirations and dreams but they have all faded.
(16) If he had the means: If he had money.
(17) No use fretting: worrying is no use.
(18) If he has a good cheque: if he earns a large sum of money.
(19) attend to: take care of.
(20) Black Mary: name of an indigenous woman.
(21) King Jimmy: an indigenous man, and Black Mary’s husband.
(22) took in: understood.
(23) she down alonga creek: she is down along the creek.
291
(24) kangaroo dogs: the dogs specially used to catch kangaroos.
(25) snake-dogs: the dogs specially used to catch snakes.
(26) in streak：a succession of.
(27) in the nick of time: in time.
(28) It was a mixed-up affair all round: everything is in a mess.
(29) dosed and bled = gave medicine to the cows
(30) a bushman in the horrors: a mad bushman.
(31) boss: host in the family.
(32) to do the block: to go strolling freely.
(33) a soul: a man.
(34) appoint: a place.
(35) make a fuss about: pay a lot of attention to.
(36) He was the last of his tribe and a King: he was a very unique man in the
world.
(37) the original curse: the source of all the evils.
(38) I won’t never go drovin’blarst me if I do! = I won’t never go droving, if I do,
it will blast me.
New words
drover
n.
赶牲口的人
timber
n.
木材
slab
n.
板层
292
string-bark
n.
veranda
澳生长的一种桉树
n.
stunted
阳台
a.
apple-tree
发育迟缓的, 矮小的
n.
she-oak
(澳洲)桉树
n.
shanty
（植）木麻黄
n.
ex-squatter
（ 澳无营业执照的）小酒店
n.
dried-up-looking
gaunt
前牧羊场主
a.
瘦瘪干巴的
a.
瘦的，憔悴的
the wood-heap
n.
树木堆
urchin
n.
顽童
wretch
n.
不幸的人
dart
v.
投
club
n.
棍棒
uplift
v.
举起, 升起
dog-of-all-breeds
crack
Alligator
n.
杂种狗
n.
裂缝
n.
赶牲口人家狗的名字
subdue
v.
sapling
a.
树苗
dresser
n.
木制柜子
skeez = squeezed
征服
v.
挤压
293
possum
n.
小负
鼠
screw
v.
拧断
blanky
a.
可恨的；诅咒语
drowsily
ad.
睡觉地
sheltered
a.
遮蔽的
gleam
v.
微光
torrent
n.
急流
drought
n.
干旱
remnant
n.
剩余
flock
n.
牛羊群
provision
castle
plate
n.
食物
n.
城堡
n.
fretting
图样
n.
buggy
烦恼
n.
童车
paw
n.
爪
bullock
flea
bough
n.
牛
n.
跳蚤
n.
树
枝
294
sooty
a.
烟熏的
perspiration
streak
n.
汗
n.
howl
痕迹
v.
lustily
嚎叫
ad.
强烈地
convulsively
ad.
痉挛性地
furiously
ad.
狂暴地
moleskin
n.
鼹鼠毛皮
choke
v.
把...栓住
saddle-strap
blunder
grin
n.
木架捆扎带
n.
大错
n.
露牙齿笑
downpour
n.
倾盆大
雨
drenching
gutter
a.
n.
排水沟
pleuro-pneumonia
bullock
design
crow
n.
胸膜肺炎
n.
besiege
hide
彻透的
公牛
v.
围住
n.
兽皮
n.
谋划，计划
n.
乌鸦
295
broomstick
cunningly
yard
n.
帚柄
ad.
狡猾地
n.
gallow
围栏
a.
swagman
吊死鬼样的
n.
背起行囊到处要饭的流浪
汉
swag
n.
行
囊
tucker
n.
batten
n.
collar
（澳）食物
木条
n.
cringing
（狗等）脖子上的颈圈
a.
chawing-up
apparatus
reptile
畏缩的, 奉承的
a.
n.
gush
pile
爬虫动物
n.
巡视人
v.
表现出
n.
命运
n.
stray
堆
a.
blackfellow
fig
器官
n.
perambulator
lot
咀嚼碎的
离群的, 偶遇的
n.
澳洲黑人
n.
无价值的部分
296
rub
v.
磨擦
partition
thrill
n.
隔板
n.
bristle
兴奋
v.
竖起
bead
n.
stick
v.
贴住
snap
v./ n.
猛咬
tug
珠子
v.
brute
用力拖
n.
畜生
terrier n.
狗
mangle
hug
v.
撕裂
v.
抱住
breast
n.
sickly
ad.
胸部
苍白地, 惨淡地
Exercises
1. Make True or False judgments.
(1) The desolation of the land serves as an extension of the character of the
drover’s wife but it also reveals the depth and persistence of Lawson’s
melancholy.
(2)The bush woman had her own sentimental side of nature, but the hard time
failed to give her chance to show it.
297
(3) When the drover returned, the bush woman felt excited while he left home
droving, the woman was very sad.
(4)The vivid description of the woman’s crying with her handkerchief reveals
that she is weak.
(5) Alligator is an important character in this story. He serves as a protector of
the whole family and at the same time, his alertness reminds the bush woman
of the snake coming out at the end of the story.
2. Answer questions.
(1) This story is one of many written about rural life in the nineteenth
century Australia. What view of this lifestyle is Lawson seeking to give?
(2) What is the writing style Lawson employ in this novel?
(3) At the end of the novel, the son said;“Mother, I won’t never go
drovin’blarst me if I do!. And she hugs him to her worn-out breast and
kisses him; and they sit thus together while the sickly daylight breaks
over the bush.” What do these words convey?
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Chapter 8 Recreations and sports
8.1 Overview: The recreational society and a sporting life
In any culture, symbols and images provide cohesion and a sense of national
299
identity. One of the most enduring images of Australia for much of the
twentieth century revolves around the activities associated with surf, swimming,
and beaches. The recreational society and masculine identity are all wrapped
up in these pervasive images of Australian life. Holidays are also
Australians’fun and entertainment (David Mosler, 2002:5).
8.1.1 Australian national public holidays
Traditionally, workers, public or private, were entitled to take off a public
holiday with regular pay. In recent years this tradition has changed somewhat.
For example, businesses that are normally open on a public holiday may
require employees to work on the day. All states have their own public holidays
in addition to national public holidays, and in some states public holidays are
provided on a local basis, such as Melbourne Cup Day.
New Year’s Day - January 1st - In Australia, New Year’s Day celebrations
commence in most capital cities on December 31st, with festivities and
fireworks at midnight to welcome in the New Year.
Australia Day - January 26th - Australia’s national day is held on January 26th
in recognition of the arrival of the First Fleet in 1788, a group of 11 ships that
sailed from England to establish a colony in Australia. Australia Day
celebrations include Australia Day Honors, Australian of the Year Awards,
Citizenship ceremonies, concerts, carnivals，and family entertainment.
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Good Friday - Good Friday is the Friday before Easter and for Christians, it
commemorates the crucifixion of Jesus and his death. In Australia, Good
Friday is celebrated on the first Friday after the full moon on or after March
21st. Good Friday commemorates the crucifixion of Jesus Christ and is a day
of mourning for Christians. It is a very important day in church calendars, as
the crucifixion and resurrection of Jesus are central events in Christian beliefs.
Members of different churches mark the day in various ways. Some churches,
especially Catholic churches, see Good Friday as a fast day and people only
eat three small meals and, often, no meat at all. Some people substitute meat
with fish. Many churches hold special services and some may hold long prayer
vigils.
Easter Monday - Easter Monday is the day after Easter Sunday. Easter
Monday is celebrated as a holiday in many Christian cultures. In previous
times, the Easter celebrations often lasted eight days. This period was known
as the Octave of Easter and is still called that in some church calendars.
Gradually, the celebrations in the week after Easter became shortened to just
the Monday after Easter. The custom of a holiday on this day was brought to
Australia by the early English, Welsh, Scottish and Irish settlers. Many people
spend Easter Monday with family or friends, carrying out home maintenance or
attending sports matches. Easter Monday is the last day of many music
festivals held during the long weekend. These include the National Folk
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Festival, the Byron Bay East Coast Blues and Roots Bluesfest, the Australian
Gospel Festival and a range of local events.
Anzac Day - April 25th - The Anzac Day Act 1995 declares the 25th of April as
a national day of commemoration of the contribution of all those who have
served Australia (including those who died) in time of war and in war-like
conflicts. ANZAC stands for Australian and New Zealand Army Corps and was
first used when Australian and New Zealand soldiers were grouped in Egypt,
prior to their landing at Gallipoli on April 25th, 1915.
Queen’s Birthday - June 14th - In Australia there are two different days to
celebrate the Queen’s Birthday. Most of Australia celebrates it in June, while
Western Australia has chosen to celebrate it every year on the Monday
nearest September 30th. Around the world, other Commonwealth countries
celebrate the Queen’s Birthday on a variety of dates. In England, it is the first
Saturday in June. In New Zealand it is the first Monday in June and in Canada
it is in the middle of May. Australian Post issues a Queen’s Birthday stamps
every year.
Christmas Day - December 25th - Christmas Day, is a Christian celebration in
commemoration of the birth of Jesus. When Christmas Day falls on a Saturday
or Sunday, the following Monday is declared a public holiday. Located in the
southern hemisphere, Australians celebrated Christmas in mid-summer.
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Boxing Day - December 26th - The origins of Boxing Day are believed to be
British, and relate to the practice of the wealthy giving gifts of money, food or
goods to the poor. Traditionally, when Boxing Day falls on a Saturday, the
following Monday is declared a public holiday. When Boxing Day falls on a
Sunday, the following Tuesday is declared a public holiday (Zhang Xianping,
2007:332-334).
8.1.2. A sporting life
Sport can be considered a cultural form that provides powerful occasions
for national identification, especially through its media presence. But
beyond the enthusiasm generated by particular sporting events, sport in
Australia has been seen as a defining characteristic of the nation (David
Carter, 2006: 182).
Australians have always loved sport. The romance with sport dates back
to early days when the nation, conscious of its convict history, sought
ways to establish an international identity. It is no surprise that
Australia is one of only two nations that has competed in every Olympics
since, and is one of only six countries that has hosted more than one
Olympics. Sport proved a tangible way to gauge the international status
and even, in certain fields, to achieve a remarkable dominance. A
nation’s pastimes are usually defined by its climate yet despite
Australia being the world’s driest inhabited continent – or perhaps
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because of it – Australians are drawn to water. They swim, surf, sail,
ski and snorkel, raft and row, and fish – every imaginable watery pursuit.
Since about 85 per cent of the population lives within 50kms of the coast,
it is inevitable that the nation has developed a tradition of excelling in
swimming. It is the most popular sport and social activity in Australia.
Sport is used extensively to socialize the masses to be participants in the
recreational society. National sports mainly include cricket, Australian Rules
Football, Rugby, soccer, horse racing, tennis, golf, netball, fishing, motor
racing, boxing, watersports, and rowing, etc. As a sporting nation, Australia
emerges considerable world champions. Sir Donald Bradman (cricket), Herb
Elliott (athletics), Murray Rose, Kieren Perkins and Ian Thorpe (swimming),
Rod Laver (tennis), Peter Thomson and Greg Norman (golf), and Michael
Doohan (motor-cycling), are all recognized as icons (Wray Vamplew and Brian
Stoddart, 1994: 23-67).
New words
revolve
v.
masculine
wrap
围绕
a.
男性的
v.
缠绕
festivity
n.
firework
n.
欢宴
烟火
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carnival
n.
狂欢节
crucifixion
n.
mourning
n.
resurrection
snorkel
raft
苦难
哀痛
n.
复兴
n.
潜艇换气装置
n.
Rugby
赛艇
n.
英式橄榄
球
netball
n.
rowing
n.
类似篮球的球赛
赛艇运动
Exercises
1. Explain terms.
(1) Australian National Day (Australian Day)
(2) Boxing Day
2. Answer questions.
(1) Why is Anzac Day special to Australians?
(2) Why is Australia a sporting nation?
(3) What are Australia’s national sports?
3. Questions for further consideration.
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(1) In what ways have sports in Australia been linked to ideas about the
Australian way of life?
(2) Are sports in Australia egalitarian?
(3)Why has popular culture played an active role in presenting Australians with
definitions of their national identity?
8.2 Reading passage: A brief historical overview of sport and recreation by
David Mosler
(① David Mosler: Professor of School of History and Politics, The
University of Adelaide, South Australia, Australia. “A brief historical overview of
sport and recreation” by David Mosler. 2002. Australia, the Recreational
Society [M]. USA: Praeger. pp.98-100.)
Sport in colonial society was intimately bound up with (1) Englishness: hunting,
horseracing, bowls, and riding were transported from the home country and
maintained English identity in a strange land for the ruling classes in the army,
bureaucracy, and the emerging indigenous elite in the pastoral industry and
bourgeoisie of the urban centers in Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane, and
Adelaide. By the middle of the nineteenth century, the cultural infrastructure of
clubs and sporting venues had created miniature replicas of the sporting
pastime of the English ruling classes.
For the masses, recreation and sport were crucial to maintain social harmony
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and cohesion. Much of life was brutal and coarse and a working-class culture
emerged that revolved around (2) drinking, gambling, boxing, football, and in
the second half of the nineteenth century, the indigenous game of Australian
Rules in Victoria and the working man’s version of Rugby in New South Wales
and Queensland under the rules of Rugby League. Now the working man
could not only indulge in a sporting lifestyle of watching sport, but he could
even earn a little cash from participation as well because the Rugby League,
which came out of the aristocratic amateur Rugby Union, was developed in
northern English mining culture, as well as in Australia, precisely to allow the
participants, not independently wealthy men as at Oxford or Cambridge, to
earn money while getting their heads kicked in (3).
By the mid-nineteenth century, Australian society was becoming more
complex and a blend of (4) the rough and readiness of an isolated rural
pastoral society and a growing urban culture with bourgeois comforts and
cultural infrastructure. Foreign visitors would comment on these paradoxes,
such as Captain Charles Wilkes (5), the leader of an American group to
Sydney in 1839. Wilkes was pleased to be “in a civilized country” where “their
own language was spoken.” But he noted that this was a culture in which
making money was the highest priority, drunkenness was pervasive with 250
taverns, and noise levels were deafening from dusty streets and lanes. He also
was struck by many similarities with Americans: they were both arrogant,
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brash, egalitarian, and full of conceit. Although visitors to Sydney in the 2000
Olympics (6) found a society of world sophistication and comfort, the character
of its people dedicated to money, fun, gambling, and boozing was instantly
recognizable.
National sports in the second half of the nineteenth century grew as did wealth
and population resulting from a growing economy based on agriculture, mining,
and pastoral industry. Regular cricket matches between Victoria and New
South Wales began in the 1850s. Horseracing was pervasive and in both town
and country one could find a race track as well as a cricket oval. In 1861, the
Melbourne Cup was run for the first time and teams began to visit from
England to compete in cricket. The growth of an Australian nation was as
deeply pervaded with sport as it was in the basic commodities of its economy;
both were regarded as the key elements in Australian character and a sense of
well-being. Recreation and money making were the keys to national
happiness.
In the 1860s, English cricket teams began to come to Australia and the great
English cricketer W. G. Grace (7) led a team to Australia in 1873-1974. In
Melbourne (March 15-17, 1877) the Australians played England in the first
official Test Match (8) (international) between the two nations (Australia, of
course, still six colonies). In 1882, the Australians won a Test at the Oval (9) in
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London and the “Ashes” (10) went to the victor and thus became the symbolic
prize between England and Australia for test matches down to the present (11).
The sporting universe for the Anglo-Saxons of the antipodes was an English
one and to beat England at their won game became a cultural obsession.
With the new nation, all the directions for sport and recreation were extended
and refined as the central focus of Australian society. In the urban areas, the
football ovals, cricket ovals, lawn bowling clubs, and running tracks filled up
the city landscapes. Australian Rules football had developed in the Victorian
gold fields base on an Irish form of football in the 1850s. In 1877, the Victorian
Football Association (12) was formed as the controlling body for Australian
Rules football (13) and for Melbourne and Victoria it would become a kind of
secular religion. It spread throughout Victoria and into Tasmania, South
Australia, Western Australia, and the Northern Territory and became a national
sport by the late twentieth century. In the twenty-first century, like the Super
Bowl (14) in America, Grand Final day in Aussie Rules (15) brings the nation to
a halt every year in the last week in September when the ball is bounced at the
MCG (16) to begin the game.
Beaches ring the nation (17), and the beach culture of the cities grew with its
surf lifesaving clubs and a culture of beach, surf, and sand. Rowing, sailing,
sculling, and swimming became sports in which Australians excelled (down to
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the 2000 Olympics). There was recreation for all and most of it was cheap or
even free. Good weather meant good sport and tennis, as an outdoor sport,
became a national obsession with Australia winning the Davis Cup in 1907 (as
a combined Australasian team with New Zealand); they have been among the
world leaders in the sport for the rest of their history. Cycling was also a sport
favored by the climate and geography of the continent. For sport, leisure,
gambling, and a general good time Australia was indeed a working person’s
paradise.
Sport and recreation, therefore, by the time of Federation was entrenched in all
regions, classes, and ethnic subdivisions of Australian society. There was
thriving and growing high culture and intellectual life but it was always small,
isolated and, in the twentieth century, often viewed with suspicion, contempt,
and even hatred. The “chattering classes,” the “chardonnay-swilling set,”(18)
the “cappuccino drinking gang,” the “black armband historians, the “guilt
industry”: none of these terms for the scribblers, intellectuals, and the artistic
elites of today are terms of endearment either historically or in the present. The
culture of the masses revolved around recreation and entertainment and as
the century wore on after Federation the economic elite increasingly adopted
the culture of the masses. Mass culture oozed upward (19) and became the
dominant culture for all social classes. Football clubs, horseracing
organizations, and all the infrastructure of a recreational society became the
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province (20) of the capitalist elite; the high culture remained but grew
increasingly isolated. The regional areas of Australia, without the competing
forces of high culture, were even more dominated by recreational activities and
it was sport and recreation that formed the heart of the identity of regional
culture. Australia became the archetype for the world of a “sports mad society.”
Notes:
(1) be bound up with: have close ties with.
(2) revolve around：centre on.
(3) to earn money while getting their heads kicked in: hard-earned money,
tough jobs.
(4) a blend of: Something, such as an effect that is created by blending.
(5) Charles Wilkes (1798–1877): an American naval officer and explorer.
(6) the 2000 Olympics: officially known as the Games of the XXVII Olympiad,
were an international multi-sport event which was celebrated between 16
September and 1 October 2000 in Sydney, New South Wales, Australia.
(7) W. G. Grace (1848- 1915): an English amateur cricketer who has been
widely acknowledged as the greatest player of all time, especially in terms
of his importance to the development of the sport.
(8) Test Match: played between national representative teams with “Test
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status”, as determined by the International Cricket Council (ICC), with four
innings played between two teams of 11 players over a period of up to a
maximum five days.
(9) the Oval: 板球场，其形状为椭圆形。
(10) “Ashes”:
灰烬杯板球赛。
(11) for test matches down to the present：Test Cricket up to today. That is one
of the most famous sporting events in Australia: Australia vs. England.
(12) the Victorian Football Association= the Victorian Football League.
(13) Australian Rules football: officially known as Australian football, is a
variant of football played outdoors between two teams. The game is
commonly referred to as football, Aussie rules or as footy.
(14) the Super Bowl: the championship game of the National Football League
(NFL), the premier association of professional American football.
(15) Aussie Rules: the ultimate invasion game.
(16) the MCG: 墨尔本板球场。
(17) Beaches ring the nation: Beaches shape the nation.
(18) “chardonnay-swilling set”: utensil to drink a lot of chardonnay.
(19) ooze upward: go up.
(20) province: a comprehensive area of activity.
New words
bowl
n.
保龄球
312
bourgeoisie
n.
infrastructure
venue
资产阶级
n.
基础设施
n.
地点
miniature
replica
a.
微型的
n.
pastime
复制
n.
coarse
a.
indulge
v.
娱乐
粗俗的
使沉迷于
aristocratic
a.
贵族的
priority
n.
tavern
n.
酒馆
deafen
v.
淹没
lane
优先
n.
brash
小巷
a.
conceit
无礼的
n.
boozing
n.
well-being
oval
酒宴
n.
康乐
n.
victor
椭圆形赛道
n.
antipode
胜利者
n.
obsession
bounce
自负
相对极
n.
痴迷
v.
弹起
313
sculling
n.
单人双桨赛艇比赛
paradise
n.
天堂
entrench
v.
确立
thriving
a.
chattering
旺盛的
a.
chardonnay
swilling
震颤
a.
夏敦埃酒
a.
痛饮
cappuccino
n.
armband
热牛奶咖啡
n.
臂
环
scribbler
n.
endearment
文人
n.
钟
爱
ooze
v.
archetype
渗出
n.
原型
Exercises
1. Make True or False judgments.
(1)Australian colonial sports were closely related to their mother country from
the beginning.
(2)After Australia established the Federation in 1901, all the directions for sport
and recreation were refined as the central focus of the country.
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(3)Cricket, by the late 21st century, became a national sport.
(4)Beaches shape Australian recreation.
(5)Australian intellectuals and the elite do not favor mass culture.
2. Answer questions.
(1) Why were recreation and sports crucial to maintain social harmony
and cohesion?
(2) By the mid-19th century, what did Australian sport look like in the eyes of
American visitors?
(3) What did the victory of the Melbourne Cup mean to Australia?
315
316
Keys to Exercises
Chapter one: Geography and ecological environment
1.1 Overview: An old continent and a unique environment
1. Explain terms.
(1) Uluru (Ayers Rock)
Uluru (also Ayers Rock or The Rock) is a large sandstone rock formation in
central Australia, in the Northern Territory. It is the second-largest monolith in
the world and is a sacred part of Aboriginal creation mythology, or dreamtime reality being a dream. Uluru is considered one of the great wonders of the
world and one of Australia's most recognizable natural icons.
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(2) Great Dividing Range
The Great Dividing Range, or the Eastern Highlands, is Australia's most
substantial mountain range and the 4th longest in the world. It gets its name for
it divides the water on the continent. Rivers that origin from the west of the
mountain go west to the Indian Ocean while those from the other side go east
to the Coral Sea.
(3) The Great Barrier Reef
The Great Barrier Reef is well known as the world’s largest Coral Reef system.
Great Barrier Reef is the largest single structure in the world made by living
organisms. In the past millions of years, the Great Barrier Reef was shaped by
the bodies of a tiny sea creature, the coral polyps. Now the Great Barrier Reef
supports a colorful but also fragile ecosystem.
(4) Murray-Darling Basin
Draining one-seventh of the Australian land mass, the Murray-Darling Basin is
currently the most important agricultural area of Australia. Most of the basin is
flat, low-lying and far inland, and receives little rainfall. The many rivers it
contains tend to be long and slow-flowing.
(5) Lake Eyre
The Lake Eyre is the largest lake in Australia and it is also known as the lowest
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point on the continent. It is named after the European explorer who found it at
the first time. The Lake Eyre is a shallow saline lake which may be completely
out of water in certain period of a year. The water in Lake Eyre can never run
into the ocean.
(6) Kangaroo
As a well known and widely welcomed national symbol of Australia, Kangaroo
is probably the most famous marsupial in the world. They are taken by the
Australians as the symbol to represent their nation.
2. Answer questions.
(1) What is the geographical structure of Australia?
The geographical structure is divided into three topographical regions.
The Western Highlands are characterized by a series of plateax, which also
take up nearly two-thirds of Australia. The famous Uluru is located in the
Western Highlands. The Central Eastern Lowlands consists of sedimentary
basins. The Eastern Highlands are shaped by a steep escarpment. The Great
Dividing Range and Eastern Australian mountain ranges are Australia’s most
substantial mountain ranges.
(2) What kind of climate does Australia have?
The climate of Australia is warm and dry. Winters are mild and summers warm
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to hot. The interior of Australia has a hot and dry climate, but the coastal areas
have a maritime climate.
(3) What are the most common native plants and animals in Australia?
The most common native plants are eucalyptus and wattles. The most
common native animals include kangaroos, koalas, emus and lungfish.
(4) What environmental challenges does Australia face now?
Today Australia faces environmental challenges such as climate change, the
change of nutrient-poor soils, biological invasion, etc. The Australian
government has made every possible means to resolve these problems.
1.2 Reading passage: Australian lungfish, Neocreatodus Forsteri, threatened
by a new dam by Angela Arthington
1. Make True or False judgments.
(1) F. Even though sophisticated fish transfer facilities are proposed to allow
upstream and downstream movements of lungfish in the Mary catchment
there is no guarantee that the fish lift and sluice will be effective enough to
maintain the original levels of population and genetic mixing. Because a
similar facility has been put into use at The Burnett Dam, the fish lift is
already operating and successfully transferring a range of fish species
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upstream, however the number of lungfish that entered the downstream
lock and exited upstream on one monitoring occasion was very low.
(2) F. The Australian lungfish can only survive out of water for a few days using
the lung, but only if the surface of the skin is constantly moist. That’s why
impoundment will do great harm to lungfish.
(3) T.
(4) T.
(5) T.
2．Answer questions.
(1) What is the main idea of the paper?
This paper demonstrates that impoundment of the Mary River and regulation
of river flows are likely to decrease lungfish populations, disrupt the breeding
cycle, reduce juvenile recruitment, and isolate habitat quality. The author
dissents with the current construction of Traveston Dam, and proposes several
mitigation options to save the lungfish population after the dam has been built.
(2) Why is the lungfish so significant to Australia?
For one thing, the lungfish is of great value in scientific research. Having a lung,
lungfish is the transition of the coelacanth and the ancestors of all land-living
vertebrates. Studying the species may provide a unique insight into how our
own vertebrate ancestors made the journey from water to land. For another,
321
Australia is the custodian of this invaluable information source for the rest of
the world. Thus, lungfish is the peculiar species of Australia and represents the
benign ecological environment of the continent.
(3) How has the Traveston dam influenced the lungfish population?
The ecological impact of the dam on the lungfish population will include at least
three issues. First, the dam will have adverse effects on lungfish habitat.
Secondly, the construction of the Traveston Dam and inundation of core
breeding habitat will disrupt the breeding cycle of the lungfish. Lastly, the dam
will result in the establishment of harmful invasive species.
Chapter 2 The Aborigines and Australian history
2.1 Overview
2.1.1 The earliest Australian history and cultural heritage
1. Explain terms.
(1) the Stolen Generation
The Stolen Generations is a term used to describe the children of Australian
Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander descent who were removed from their
families by the Australian Federal and State government agencies and church
missions, under acts of their respective parliaments.
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(2) the Mabo Case
The Mobo Case was a landmark of the High Court of Australia recognizing
native title in Australia for the first time. The High Court rejected the doctrine of
terra nullius, in favor of the common law doctrine of Aboriginal title.
(3) the National “Sorry Day”
A national “Sorry Day” was held on 26th May 1998, a day when all Australians
could express their sorrow for the whole tragic episode and to the Stolen
Generation, and celebrate the beginning of a new understanding. The recent
increase in Aboriginal population reflects improved living conditions and a
broad and inclusive definition of Aboriginal identity on the part of the
government.
(4) the Australian Aboriginal Flag
The Australian Aborigines flag is a symbol of the Aboriginal people of Australia.
The flag is a yellow disc on a horizontally divided field of black and red. The
symbolic meaning of the flag colors are Black: Represents the Aboriginal
people of Australia; Red: Represents the red earth, the red ochre and a
spiritual relation to the land; Yellow: Represents the Sun, the giver of life and
protector.
(5) Dreamtime
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The Dreamtime laid down the patterns of life for the Aboriginal people.
Dreaming stories cover many themes and topics, as there are stories about
creation of sacred places, land, people, animals and plants, law and custom. It
is a complex network of knowledge, faith, and practices. The Dreaming
establishes the structures of society, rules for social behavior, and the
ceremonies performed in order to ensure continuity of life and land.
(6) the Aboriginal literature
The Aboriginal literature had a long history, but due to the absence of written
language, it existed only in the form of songs and oral stories. Sally Morgan's
My Place was considered a breakthrough memoir in terms of bringing
indigenous stories to wider notice.
(7) Indigenous education
The Australian Government priority for Indigenous Education is accelerating
the improvement of the educational outcomes of Indigenous school students,
so that the level of outcomes of these students is similar to the levels achieved
by other Australian students. However, the indigenous education in Australia
also faces problems. In most schools the proportion of Aboriginal children is
about five percent or less.
2. Answer questions.
324
(1) What is the significance of the land to Aboriginal people?
In the eyes of Aborigines, person and land are related to each other.
Their links with a particular area of land cannot be taken away. Land is a
source of their identity. This is the religious significance of land, but land also
provides the group with a means of living. From an aboriginal point of view, the
most serious consequence of European settlement is the loss of land. Land
was central to Aboriginal religious life, the primary basis of economic survival,
and a fundamental aspect of individual and collective identity.
(2) What is the impact of colonization on the indigenous people?
Colonization not only disrupted traditional Aboriginal lifestyle, but it also has
been identified as the most important factor contributing to the poor health
status of Aboriginal people today. The introduced diseases have resulted in a
rapid population loss. Aboriginal population in pre –contact time was
approximately 314,500, and in 1933 it was 73.828 which is roughly 25 per cent
that of the pre-colonial time. This data indicates the devastating effect of
colonization on Indigenous Australians’population.
(3) How has the history of Australia excluded Aboriginal people?
In 1901, the new Commonwealth Government guaranteed Australian citizens
a range of fundamental rights: women's suffrage in 1902, the minimum wage in
1907, pensions for the aged and invalid in 1909, and a maternity allowance in
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1912. Aboriginal Australians were denied access to these rights. At state level,
discriminatory laws or practices were introduced which excluded many
Aboriginal children from public schools.
2.1.2 From British colony to an independent nation
1. Explain terms.
(1) James Cook
James Cook, also known as Captain Cook, is a British naval officer, as well as
a great explorer, navigator and cartographer. He is known for his three
voyages to the Pacific Ocean during which he achieved the first European
contact with the eastern coastline of Australia which he named New South
Wales.
(2) Matthew Flinders
Matthew Flinders was one of the most successful navigators and
cartographers the 18th and 19th century. He and George Bass circumnavigated
Australia and encouraged the use of that name for the continent. They proved
that New Holland, New South Wales and Botany Bay were not separated
islands, but parts of a single continent. He was the explorer who completed the
draft of the Australia coast line.
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(3) The First Fleet
The First Fleet is the name of a group of 11 ships and about 1500 people
setting off from England on May 13, 1787. The fleet headed to Australia to
establish the first European colony in Australia. They established the first
convict settlement in this continent. Now, the great voyage is celebrated in
Australia on January 26 every year.
(4) A Penal Colony
Penal Colonies are the convict settlement in Australia established for those
convicts banished from the Great Britain. At first, those convicts were sent to
Australia in order to isolate them from the western society. However, they
brought the tools from the more developed western world as well as their new
style of life. They contributed a lot in the development of Australia.
(5) Sheep Industry
Because of Captain John Macarthur’s effort on wool industry, Australia’s
sheep industry was beginning. And from then on, with the help of British and its
natural advantages, the sheep industry grew explosively. Australia’s sheep
took most of the British market. Now, the sheep industry is an indispensible
part to Australia’s economic. Australia has become the most important wool
export country in the world and sometimes we call it “the country riding on the
sheep’s back”.
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(6) The Gold Rush
The Australian gold rush started in 1851. The gold rush was highly significant
to Australia’s political and economic development. With the Australian gold
rush came the construction of the first railways and telegraph lines,
multiculturalism and racism. It is also true to say that the gold rush had a
profound impact on the national psyche.
(7) AIF
The Australian Imperial Force (AIF) was the name given to all-volunteer
Australian Army forces dispatched to fight overseas during World War I and
World War II. The two AIFs are distinguished by referring to the World War I
contingent as the “1st AIF”, and the World War II contingent as the “2nd AIF”.
(8) Gallipoli
It’s a name of the place where Australian and New Zealand forces landed
during the World War I. The Gallipoli peninsula is located in Turkish Thrace.
The Gallipoli campaign took place from 25 April 1915 to 9 January 1916,
during the First World War. The campaign was the first major battle
undertaken by the Australian and New Zealand Army Corps (ANZAC), and is
often considered to mark the birth of national consciousness in both of these
countries.
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(9) ANZAC Day
Anzac Day is a national day of remembrance in Australia and New Zealand,
and is commemorated by both countries on 25 April every year to honor
members of the Australian and New Zealand Army Corps (ANZAC) who fought
at Gallipoli in Turkey during World War I. Anzac Day marks the anniversary of
the first major military action fought by Australian and New Zealand forces
during the First World War.
(10)John Joseph Curtin
He was Australian politician and the 14th Prime Minister of Australia, led
Australia when the Australian mainland came under direct military threat
during the Japanese advance in World War II. He is widely regarded as one of
the country's greatest Prime Ministers. He called up his nation to fight against
Japan, and he took several crucial decisions in the war.
(11) Robert Menzies
He was Australian politician, was the 12th and longest serving Prime Minister
of Australia. He founded the Liberal Party of Australia. Throughout his career,
Menzies held strong beliefs in the Monarchy and in traditional ties with Britain.
Menzies is regarded highly in Prime Ministerial opinion polls and is very highly
regarded in Australian society for his tenure as Prime Minister.
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(12) Australian economic boom
After 1945 Australia entered a boom period. Hundreds of thousands of
refugees and migrants arrived in Australia in the immediate post-war period.
The period after WWII was distinguished by a “long boom” of prosperity and
full employment, rising living standards, large scale migration, and continued
dependence on agriculture. Socially, the old Anglo-Celtic character and
traditional values were losing their hold. Women were entering the workforce in
increased numbers. University and tertiary education were becoming available.
Television, modern communications and international travel were also
contributing to a growing cosmopolitan awareness.
2. Answer questions.
(1) Why did Australia become a penal settlement for Britain?
America declared its independence in 1776. Before this year, the British
government sent its convicts to the North American continent. Now Britain
transported its convicts to the Australian continent.
(2) Why did the six colonies decide to unite at the end of the 1890s?
The people of the Australian colonies had many things in common: their
English background, the English language, traditions, laws and many other
features. So unity was inevitable. Another important argument for the
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federation was that the six colonies needed to have the same approach to
common issues like immigration, foreign policy and defense. The economic
factor that contributed to the federation was that free, Australian-wide trade
would be an advantage.
(3) What were the effects of the gold rush that occurred in Australia in the
1850s?
The discovery of gold attracted many people from outside Australia. The
Australian population increased drastically during the gold rush. Gold rush
immigrants helped the growth and influence of a middle class in Australia. The
gold rush stimulated all aspects of the economy and increased the wealth of
the colonies. Imports and local manufacturing were stimulated by the demand
for goods and services.
(4) Why was Australia willing to take part in World War I?
In 1901, Australia as a nation declared its independence. By getting involved in
World War I, this young country started to enter the international stage and to
win the respect from the world. With its close ties to Britain, Australia joined the
war.
2.2 Reading passage: War and national survival by Stephen Alomes
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1. Make True or False judgments.
(1) T.
(2) F. To most Australian men, fears of Japan reduced their enthusiasm for a
European battlefield. Some unemployed showed their enthusiasm
because they expected work opportunities and adventures after the Great
Depression.
(3) F. John Curtin did not receive any recognition from Britain. He is the first
national leader to say no to Britain.
(4) T.
(5) F. MacArthur, as Supreme Commander for the Southwest Pacific, settled
himself in the best of quarters in grand Australian hotels with a large
entourage. Later he treated the Australian government and army with
indifference, preferring the leadership of his own inexperienced officers to
that of battle-hardened Australians. America only saw Australia in the role
of growing food.
(6) T.
2．Answer questions.
(1) What were Australians’ reactions to the prospect of a Second World
War in only a short period after the first one?
Australians cared much about themselves. Britain, their “mother country,”
mattered little to Australians. “Looking after yourself first” seemed to have
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become the basic law of everyday life. Those who joined the army were
considered as fools. Business, sport and entertainment went on as usual.
Australians did not view the war as an important thing.
(3) What characterized Australian relations with Britain and America
during World War II?
When the British battleships sank and the Singapore base started to loose
during World War II, John Curtin made a call to Australians, emphasizing
that Australia’s first line of defence was not the Rhine or Afghanistan,
South Africa or the Suez, but the islands of the Dutch East Indies and
New Guinea to its North. On the other hand, Australia brought back its
army divisions from the Middle East to stop the Japanese advance.
Australia refused Churchill’s request on not letting the 6th and 7th
Division return to Australia. This showed that Australia placed their
defence before traditional loyalties to Britain. Australia began to turn
to America. The American role in the defence of Australia seemed
important. General Douglas MacArthur was appointed Supreme Commander
for
the Southwest Pacific and lived in Australia. In the economic field,
Australia exported much primary produce to America and imported secondary
industry materials from the US.
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(3) What were some of the effects of World War II on Australia?
The Second World War had an impact on Australia. First, the war promoted
the development of industry, science and communications. These advances
strengthened the federal government and integrated the states into a
larger national economy. Secondly, the war helped improve secondary
industry and manufacturing. Thirdly, the war enhanced the force for
national unity and national building. Fourthly, the war stimulated the
movement for social reforms. Lastly, Australian foreign policy became
pragmatic, which was quite different from the idealism that existed
before.
Chapter 3 Politics and economics
3.1 Overview
3.1.1 Australian politics: A British past and an Asian future
1. Explain terms.
(1) the Governor-General
The Governor-General is the formal head of the executive branch of the
government. He is the representative of the Queen in Australia. However, as
the British monarch has no real power in Australia, the Governor-General acts
only on the advice of the Executive Council, which is made up of himself and
the Cabinet.
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(2) Australian three-tier system
The Australian Parliament (the legislatures) and the government; state and
territory governments and their legislatures (the Northern Territory is similar to
the states because it is largely self-governing); and local municipalities at the
city, town and shire levels.
(3) referendum
National referendums are polls held to approve government-proposed
changes to the Australian constitution. Voting in a referendum is compulsory,
in the same way that it is compulsory to vote in an Australian general election.
(4) The Liberal Party of Australia (LPA)
The Liberal Party in Australia is generally an advocate of economic liberalism.
The party was quite interventionist in its economic policy and maintained
Australia's high tariff levels. In federal politics, the Liberal Party is in opposition
since losing the 2007 federal election, having held power since the 1996
election.
(5) The Australian Labor Party (ALP)
The Australian Labor Party was founded in 1891. It is the country's oldest
active political party. The Labor Party advocates a broad program of moderate
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socialization.
2. Answer questions.
(1) Why did the six colonies decide to federate at the end of the 1890s?
The people of the Australian colonies had many things in common: their
English language, traditions, and laws as well. So unity was inevitable. Another
important factor for federation was that six colonies needed to have the same
approach to common issues like immigration, foreign policy and defense. The
economic factor that contributed to federation was that free, Australian-wide
trade would be an advantage.
(2) What does the Australian federate Parliament consist of?
It consists of the British Monarchy, the House of Representatives and the
Senate. The monarchy is represented by the Governor-General. The Federal
Parliament is the legislative body, having the power to make and change laws.
The two Houses have equal power except that the Senate cannot introduce
money bills, which may be initiated only in the House of Representatives.
(3) How did World War II affect Australia’s foreign policy?
Australia's ties with their mother country, Britain did not give them any
advantages during the war. Australia had hoped that Britain would be able to
defend them in the case of an invasion, but as it happened in World War II,
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Britain was busy fighting off the Germans in the “European War” theatre. When
Pearl Harbor was attacked, the USA came into the war and joined with
Australia in fighting off the “Japanese”. So as a result of World War Two,
Australia came to depend on the USA, rather than their “mother country”,
Britain. America, during World War II, had plans for using Australia as a
defensive force to invade Asia and pushing back the progressing Japanese
army.
3.1.2 From a country of a riding on the sheeps’back to a stable and competitive
economy
1. Explain terms.
(1) Merinos
In 1797, 2 naval officers bought 26 merino sheep at the Cape of Good Hope.
Some of them were brought to Sydney. John Macarthur bought and bred from
them. By 1810, there were nearly 33 000 mixed breeds in the colony. All of
them were on the coastal plain between the Blue Mountains and the sea. By
April 1815, a team of convicts built a road across the mountains. Soon settlers
and their sheep were spreading over the plains of New South Wales. John
Macarthur, breeder of the first merino, was featured on the Australian $2 bill.
(2) wool industry
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For over 100 years, wool was the product that earned the most money for
Australia. “Riding the sheep's back” was the wool term people used to use,
which meant wool supported the country. 97% of Australian wool goes
overseas. Wool is still quite an important product of Australian agriculture. The
Australian wool industry is widely recognized as producing the finest quality
Merino wool.
(3) protectionism in Australia
In 1931-1932, Australia suffered the Great Depression. The Depression led to
a protective economy which relied more on manufacturing. Protectionism is
the economic policy of restraining trade between states, through methods such
as tariffs on imported goods. Import restrictions implemented by the Australian
government of that time resulted in increased profits to the manufacturing
industry.
2. Answer questions.
(1) What are some features of the manufacturing industry in Australia?
Australian industries are highly concentrated, with 14 large national
monopolies. Besides, Australian manufacturing relies heavily on foreign
investment.
(2) Why is Australia one of the world’s leading producers of food and natural
338
fibers?
As far as agriculture is concerned, Australia is one of the world’s
leading producers of food and natural fibers. It is the world’s largest
exporter of wool, the second largest exporter of meat and the third largest
exporter of wheat.
(3) Is Australia rich in natural resources? Why?
Yes. Australia is one of the world’s biggest producers of minerals and metals. It
is the world’s largest exporter of coal, a major exporter of uranium and exporter
of crude oil and natural gas. Besides, Australia is also a middle-level trading
nation. The main feature of trade is that it has always involved the exchange of
raw materials for finished products.
3.2 Reading passage: Getting a Grip on Bonecrushers by Tom Dusevic
1. Make True or False Judgments.
(1) T.
(2) F. According to the author, what politicians should do before conversing is
to introduce themselves, give campaign materials and ask general
questions, instead of shaking hands.
(3) T.
(4) T.
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(5) F. While shaking hands with others, he liked to scan the room looking for
attractive women.
2. Answer the questions.
(1) Why was Mark Latham beaten by John Howard in the 2004 contest?
Mark Latham left a bossy impression on voters by pulling Howard in close
in front of the cameras. Howard, who shook hands firmly with his voters,
displayed his enthusiasm, confidence and courage, which helped him gain
trust from voters.
(2) How can Julia Gillard attract Australians to vote for her?
Gillard’s warm greeting leaves a positive impression on others. She
makes a firm and nice grip, with a sincere smile, and her eye contact
appeals to many people. What’s more, her willingness to kiss in public can
always please her followers and bring her support.
(3) Why is an appropriate handshake a useful tool for holding on to power?
A good handshake is a very quick and effective way to obtain voters’
support. They prefer a gentle official to an arrogant one. On the one hand,
an appropriate handshake can convey respect and trust, on the other
hand, voters appreciate a friendly grip with eye contact and a natural
smile.
Chapter 4 Education and globalization of Australia’s higher education
340
4.1 Overview: A well-developed system with high quality
1. Explain terms.
(1) the Group of Eight (Go8)
The Group of Eight (Go8) is a group of eight Australian tertiary
institutions in Australia. The Group of Eight universities excel
in giving their students world-class training and they are usually
the first choice of the majority of high-qualified Australian school
graduates and international students.
(2) the VET system
VET stands for vocational education and training. VET is a national system
in Australia designed to skill workers to work in particular industries. VET
works on a nationwide level, covering four levels of Certificate, Diplomas
and Advanced Diplomas within the Australian Qualifications Framework.
Australian VET qualifications are designed to provide students with
nationally recognized competencies that employers have identified as
critical to their needs.
2. Answer questions.
(1) What were main features of Australian universities in the colonial period?
Australian higher education followed the British heritage. The
341
universities of the colonial period became emblems of cultural and
social progress. The ideal of higher education was to cultivate social
elites. The educational purpose was to provide a mental training.
(2) What are the two types of modern Australian higher education?
The one type is called VET, that is to say, the system of vocational
education and training. The other one is universities and other higher
education institutions.
(3) Why is Australia the leading international student destination in many
countries?
On the one hand, Australia views its higher education as a well-developed
industry. It can be exported and bring about profits. The international
education industry is its largest service sector. On the other hand, Australia
owns the safest and most tolerant environment for international students
with various backgrounds in the world today.
4.2 Reading passage：Globalization and Australia’s higher education by Hu
Zhuanglin
1. Make True or False judgments.
(1) T.
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(2) T.
(3) F. Deregulation and business techniques are regarded as one factor which
influences Australian process of internationalization. The diverse culture,
the relatively low tuition fees, government policies concerned, mild
climates, and the developed English-language higher education systems
are all factors that contribute to its internationalization.
(4) F. In Australia, international education is an industry. The good combination
of higher education and industry has helped Australians deeply
understand its advantages.
(5) T.
2. Answer questions.
(1) Why is marketization Australia’s choice?
The funding given by the government has decreased and the universities are
in need of financial support in order to survive. With the development of a
knowledge-based economy, private fundings have increased. The private
investment on education is significant to the financial survival of Australian
universities.
(2) Why is internationalization important to Australia?
Through enrolling international students, Australian universities can obtain
profits to cover their budget gap. Internationalzation contributes greatly to the
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survival of Australian universities. Australia has had its rich experience in
pushing its higher education into the international markets. Today it has a
wealth of experience to enable it to go international. In addition, Australia is a
multicultural society which makes it easier to attract international students.
(3) Why does the quality of education become the main concern with the
marketization of Australian higher education?
In order to accept more overseas students, the applicants for Australian
universities favor low entry requirements. More intelligent students will
lose their places to those less intelligent but more affluent ones. On
the other hand, teachers and students become practical when faced with
the marketization of Australian higher education. Students as learners
have turned to be customers rather than participants involved in the
process of learning. Teachers have changed their traditional role as
classroom managers.
Chapter 5 Mass Media and film industry
5.1 Overview: Vigorous development and free expression
1. Explain terms.
(1) The Australian
The Australian is a broadsheet newspaper published in Australia on Monday
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to Saturday each week since 1964. The Australian is the biggest-selling
national newspaper in the country.
(2) The Australian Financial Review
The Australian Financial Review is the leading business newspaper in
Australia which is published daily from Monday to Saturday in a tabloid
format by the media company Fairfax Media.
(3) ABC (Australian Broadcasting Corporation)
The Australian Broadcasting Corporation is Australia's national public
broadcaster. The corporation provides television, radio, online and mobile
services throughout metropolitan and regional Australia, as well as overseas
through the Australia Network and Radio Australia.
(4) SBS (Special Broadcasting Service)
The Special Broadcasting Service (SBS) is a hybrid-funded Australian public
broadcasting radio and television network. The stated purpose of SBS is to
provide multilingual and multicultural radio and television services that inform,
educate and entertain all Australians and, in doing so, reflect Australia's
multicultural society. SBS is a non-commercial multilingual radio and
multicultural television service.
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2. Answer questions.
(1) What are the two famous newspapers in Australia?
The Australian and The Australian Financial Review have become the most
successful newspaper publications in Australia. The two newspapers have
built and supported the spirit of many Australians. The Australian
has become the biggest-selling national newspaper in the country. The
Australian Financial Review is the leading business newspaper.
(2) What are the two important television stations in Australia?
The well-known television stations are the Australian Broadcasting
Corporation (ABC) and Special Broadcasting Service (SBS). ABC is a
state-owned corporation. SBS is a non-commercial, multicultural
television service. It is one of two government-funded Australian public
broadcasting radio and television networks.
(3) What are the two film booms in Australia?
The first boom in Australian film-making occurred during 1910. 1910 saw four
narrative films released, then 51 in 1911, 30 in 1912, and 17 in 1913, and back
to four in 1914. While these numbers may seem small, Australia was one of
the most prolific film-producing countries at the time. The second boom in
Australian film-making was during the period of the 1970s and 1980s. The
important feature was that government funding for Australian filmmakers
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increased. The South Australian Film Corporation and the Australian Film
Commission and actors emerged. The 1970s and 80s are regarded as a
‘golden age' of Australian cinema.
5.2 Reading passage: Creative nation: approaching Australian cinema and
cultural studies by Amit Sarwal and Reema Sarwal
1. Make True or False judgments.
(1) T.
(2) F. Actually, the Australian film industry started with bushrangers and
swagmen while the Australian history of European settlement began with
convicts.
(3) T.
(4) T.
(5) F. An important change in Australian film industry is the shift from being
purely Anglo-centered to multicultural forms of displaying ethnic relations.
2. Answer questions.
(1) What is the aim of this article?
The author aims to contextualise Australian film and cultural studies as well as
having a historical perspective. This article emphasizes an understanding of
the Australian cinema and culture, keeping the industry and policy context in
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the background.
(2) Why is it said that the Australian cinema industry is policy led?
Every living Australian prime minister has run a government that did something
for the Australian film industry. Gorton started federal assistance to the
industry. Fraser introduced 10BA. Hawke established the Film Finance
Corporation. Keating delivered Creative Nation, an expensive statement of
cultural policy announced in October, 1994. It is only post-1994 that the
promotion of Australian films has increasingly become a core element of
Australia’s cultural policies.
(3) Why was the 1970s called the “golden age” or the renaissance of
Australian cinema?
It is the Australian government that contributed to the revival of Australian film
industry. Under the government, Australian films received a worldwide
recognition: to compete internationally, to rid Australia of American and British
influences, and to increase the funding for its national filmmakers through the
establishment of the Australian Film Commission.
Chapter 6 Multiculturalism
6.1 Overview: A cohesive and diverse country
348
1. Explain terms.
(1) the White Australian Policy
The White Australia Policy was officially adopted by the Commonwealth of
Australia in 1901, and then Australian government issued the Immigration
Restriction Act. It was made to stop Chinese and other non-British migrants
from entering and settling in Australia. This was mainly achieved through a
diction test in a European language. The White Australia Policy was officially
abolished in 1973.
(2) the policy of assimilation
The policy of assimilation was implemented at the beginning of the 20th century.
It was founded on the belief that white culture was progressive and superior
while the indigenous culture was inferior. To implement the policy, indigenous
children were taken away from their parents to be put into the protected
reserves, whose purpose was to destroy the culture of the Dreaming and
replace it with Christianity. The impact of the policy is devastating on the
indigenous people.
(3) Multiculturalism in Australia
Multiculturalism in Australia was adopted in 1973. It was composed of 3 areas
of policy, including Cultural Identity, which means the right to express and
share one’s cultural heritage; Social Justice, the right to equal treatment and
349
opportunity; and Economic Efficiency, the need to maintain and develop the
skills of all Australians regardless of their backgrounds.
(4) The National Harmony Day
The National Harmony Day was set up by Australian government on March
21st, 1999 and is celebrated annually on that day. The key message of
Harmony Day is Everyone Belongs. It's about community participation,
inclusiveness, respect and a sense of belonging for everyone.
2. Answer questions.
(1) What are the three historical stages of multiculturalism in Australia?
The first stage is the assimilation stage. The White Australia Policy was
dominant. The second stage is the integration stage. Immigrants started
to be respected. The last stage is the multiculturalism
stage. The government issued a few of policies to admit, accept and embrace
cultures from immigration groups.
(2)What were the sources of the assimilation policy?
The assimilation policy was based on many sources, for example, racial,
Darwinian and eugenic theories. Racial purity became the main concern for
this policy.
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(3) What are the main contents of a New Agenda for Multicultural Australia?
A New Agenda for Multicultural Australia contains four principles: civic duty;
cultural respect; social equality; and productive diversity.
(4) Does multiculturalism mean that Australia no longer has its own identity?
No. Australians agree that it is accurate to describe Australia as “multi-ethnic”
or “multi-racial”. Regardless of which description is used, the fact remains that
it is the core values and principles of the democratic society that define the
characteristic
Australian
identity
of
the
society.
While
Australian
multiculturalism acknowledges that diversity is a fact of life, and supports
policies allowing people the freedom to maintain ethnic identities, values and
lifestyles, it insists that this must be done within an overarching framework of
common laws and shared values and institutions.
(5) Does multiculturalism promote social harmony?
Yes. Australia is a free and democratic society which values its diversity.
Multiculturalism is concerned with the acceptance of difference and freedom.
Diversity is a positive force. Most Australians would agree that Australia is a
cohesive and harmonious society. Multicultural strategies have been a
significant contributing factor to this success, aiming to manage the
consequences of this diversity in the interests of the individual and society as a
whole.
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6.2 Reading passage 1: Is Australia a multicultural nation?
By David Carter
1. Make True or False judgments.
(1) F. A high level of immigration does not necessarily mean a multicultural
society.
(2) T.
(3) T.
(4) F. The Rudd government established the Australian Multicultural Advisory
Council in December 2008.
(5) T.
2. Answer questions.
(1) What makes Australia an example of a multicultural country?
First, Australia has the highest percentage of immigrants in its resident
population, even higher than USA and Canada. Secondly, through
government policy, Australia has defined itself as a multicultural nation
since the mid-1970s. Lastly, within the nation, there are many multicultural
programs throughout all Australian States.
(2) Why does the author think Howard’s official definition of multiculturalism
means‘white multiculturalism’?
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The key words “diversity” or “difference”in his official definitions on
multiculturalism have been changed to “tolerance” or “harmony”, which
leaves people with the impression that he is keen on talking about unity
rather than diversity. The replacement of key words is by no means from
the perspective of immigrant cultural backgrounds but from the white
cultural background.
(3) What is the author’s conclusion of Australian multiculturalism?
The author admits that Australia is a multicultural society. He points out
that this multicultural society is still far from images of happy and
harmonious ‘festival multiculturalism’.
He calls for attention to defend
the multiculturalism of Australia.
6.2 Reading passage 2: Cultural attitudes and Aussie communicative style
by Cliff Goddard
1. Make True or False judgments.
(1) T.
(2) F. The feeling of self-importance is discouraged. If you tell people about
your success, you mean to get praise from them. In Australian culture, seeking
recognition of your achievements is laughed at by people around you. On the
contrary, self-deprecation and modesty are admired.
(3) F. Ambition is also discouraged and even its hard-earned fruit should be
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attributed to luck.
(4) T.
(5) T.
2. Answer questions.
(1)How do you understand the simple cultural script in [A] proposed by
Wierzbicka?
The simple cultural script in [A] indicates that “egalitarianism” as an Australian
social ideal. To be specific, Australians like people to be ordinary; they have a
deep belief in the essential sameness and ordinariness of mankind. Besides,
they tend to think that all people are the same, which means what is good for
one is good for another.
(2) What kind of lifestyle is mainly recommended by the author?
A low key lifestyle is mainly recommended. It suggests that you are a lot less
than what others think you are. To be specific, thinking of oneself as better
than others and thinking of oneself as not like others will be disapproved of in
Australian culture. What’s more, achievements and ambition must also be
deprecated.
(3) Does the sentence “thou shalt not try to be better than others” mean that
you should always be worst than others?
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It does not mean that you should actually be worse than others. In fact, the
Australian does not want to appear too good at what he or she does.
Hide it if you are successful or intelligent. A humble attitude or a low key
lifestyle is regarded as the best choice.
Chapter 7 Literature
7.1 Overview: From the bush myth to international recognition
1. Explain terms.
(1) Henry Lawson
Henry Lawson is the best-known Australian poets and fiction writers of the
colonial period, and is often called Australia's “greatest writer”. Lawson’s first
published poem was A Song of the Public which appeared in The Bulletin in
1887. Much of Lawson's work was set in the Australian bush, or was about
bush life. His work was a real reflection of Australian life.
(2) Andrew Barton Paterson
Andrew Barton is an Australian bush poet, journalist and author. He wrote
many ballads and poems about Australian life, focusing particularly on the rural
and outback areas. Paterson's more notable poems include “Waltzing Matilda”,
“The Man from Snowy River” and “Clancy of the Overflow”.
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(3) the Bulletin
The Bulletin was Australia’s oldest and best-known weekly news magazine. It
was published in Sydney from 1880 until January 2008. The Bulletin was
influential in Australian culture and politics from about 1890 until World War I,
the period when it was identified with the “Bulletin school” of Australian
literature. The final issue was published on 23 January 2008.
(4) Australian nationalist literature
Australian nationalist literature is a major part of Australian literature.
Nationalism rises all over Australia. Many poets and writers believed that an
Australian identity must emanate from their own soil. They focused on bush life
and bushmen, which had an iconic status in Australian life. The themes of
nationalist
literature
are
optimism,
mateship,
contempt
of
authority.
Representatives are Henry Lawson, A. B. Paterson, etc.
(5) non-mainstream novels
Non-mainstream novels refer to those novels written during the period of World
Wars that have little to do with wars. Some of them followed the steps of the
Euro-American writers in giving much space describing sexual liberties and
adopting the writing styles of stream of consciousness. They had great
influences on Australian modern novels.
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(6) Patrick White
Patrick Victor Martindale White was an Australian author who was widely
regarded as a major English-language novelist of the 20th century. His fiction
freely
employs
shifting
narrative
vantage
points
and
a
stream of
consciousness technique. In 1973, he was awarded the Nobel Prize in
Literature.
(7) David Williamson
David Williamson is one of Australia's best-known playwrights. His major
works include Don’t Party (1971); Jugglers Three (1972); The Department
(1975) and The Club (1977). He also collaborated on the screenplays for
Gallipoli (1981) and The Year of Living Dangerously (1982). Williamson's work
as a playwright focuses on themes of politics, loyalty and family in
contemporary urban Australia.
(8) the Aboriginal literature
The characters of the Aboriginal literature can be summarized as follows。First,
they focused on the relationship between White people and Aborigines,
criticizing the political inequality between them. Secondly, they explored the
historical traces of the Aborigines, especially the maltreatment toward them
after the White’s settlement. Lastly, they depicted the unique ways of life of the
Aborigines, especially the fables and legends. The Aboriginal literature has
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doubtlessly formed one important part of the Australian literature.
2. Answer questions.
(1) What are the four periods of Australian literature?
The first period (1788-1888) is the colonial stage. The convict settlement came
to symbolize the beginning of Australian literature. The second period
(1889-1913) is the nationalist stage. The national novels conveyed a desire for
equality and freedom, resentment towards their mother country, and the
longing for independence. The third period (1914-1943) is the world war period.
Non-mainstream novels attained a new state in this phase. The fourth period
(1946-now) is the contemporary period. Australian literature stepped onto the
international stage and obtained wide acclaim.
(2) Why does Lawson always take mateship as the theme of his stories?
First, Lawson considers the ordinary Australian noble. Secondly, Lawson
considers that mateship is the true value or the true character of the Australian
people. Being a typical Australian writer, Lawson eulogises this value of the
people in his works. Lastly, mateship is the direct reflection of his time. The
content of mateship is the combination of loyalty, sympathy, equality, mutual
understanding and self-sacrifice. Mateship is, as a complex historical
phenomenon, closely connected with religion, democracy and liberalism.
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(3) How do you understand the term “mateship”?
Mateship is an Australian cultural idiom that embodies equality, loyalty and
friendship. Mateship derives from mate, meaning friend, commonly used in
Australia as an amicable form of address. Mateship can also be expressed in
such qualities as loyalty to ones’ mates in preference to the law.
7.2 Reading passage: The Drover’s wife by Henry Lawson
1. Make True or False judgments.
(1) T.
(2) T.
(3) F. It was normal for the family that the drover left home. Only when he went
home did the woman tidy up the children and would get him something good to
eat.
(4) F. The description of the woman in tear with her handkerchief shows the
sense of humor. The bush woman is optimistic.
(5) T.
2. Answer questions.
(1) This story is one of many written about rural life in the nineteenth century
Australia. What view of this lifestyle is Lawson seeking to give?
In this story, Lawson depicted the bush life. The bush was gloomy and
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pessimistic and isolated. With the desolate country scene as his setting,
Lawson portrayed a bush woman with her husband going droving. The bush
life was full of hardships. The woman had to confront enormous
difficulties alone, however, she showed her peculiar wisdom, humour and
bravery. The life of the woman in the story is the description of what
real bush life looks like.
(2) What is the writing style Lawson employs in this novel?
Lawson employed the narrative style with flashbacks, narration, and
climax in this novel. The story for one night tells the whole life of a
bush woman. When the snake came out, the story gradually entered its
climax. By using this writing style, Lawson highlighted perseverance and
strength of human nature in the face of a rough natural environment.
(3) At the end of the novel, the son said;“Mother, I won’t never go
drovin’blarst me if I do!. And she hugs him to her worn-out breast and
kisses him; and they sit thus together while the sickly daylight breaks
over the bush.” What do these words convey?
The little boy has grown up and understands his mother. The understanding
and love between the mother and the son is beyond the description of words,
and nothing but the mother’s hug and kiss can tell us more about her
feelings.
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Chapter 8 Recreations and sports
8.1 Overview: The recreational society and a sporting life
1. Explain terms.
(1) Australian National Day (Australian Day)
Australian National Day (Australian Day)
Australia Day is the official national day of Australia. Celebrated annually on 26
January, the day commemorates the arrival of the First Fleet at Sydney Cove
in 1788. Australia Day is an official public holiday in every state and territory of
Australia.
(2) Boxing Day
Boxing Day is a bank and public holiday commonly occurring on the 26th of
December. It is observed in the Commonwealth of Nations with a mainly
Christian population. It relates to the practice of the wealthy giving gifts of
money, food or goods to the poor
2. Answer questions.
(1) Why is Anzac Day special to Australians?
Anzac Day is the 25th of April, and is a national day of commemoration of the
contribution of all those who have served Australia in time of war and in
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war-like conflicts. ANZAC stands for Australian and New Zealand Army Corps
and was first used when Australian and New Zealand soldiers were grouped in
Egypt. The creation of what became known as the “ANZAC legend” became
an important part of the identity of the nation, shaping the way they viewed
both their past and their future.
(2) Why is Australia a sporting nation?
Australians have always loved sport and have generally excelled at them.
Even before the Federation was organized in 1901, ‘Australia’ was competing
internationally as a nation. Australia has more than 120 national sporting
organizations and thousands of local, regional and state sports bodies.
Australians are serious sports enthusiasts and sports have become part of the
mainstream popular culture.
(3) What are Australia’s national sports?
Football, rugby, tennis, swimming, golf, basketball, and horse racing flourish
throughout the country. The major summer sport, however, is cricket.
8.2 Reading passage: A brief historical overview of sport and recreation by
David Mosler
1. Make True or False judgments.
(1) T.
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(2) T.
(3) F. In 1877, the Victorian Football Association was formed as the controlling
body. It would become a kind of secular religion. Later, football spread across
many states and capitals and has become a national sport.
(4) T.
(5) F. Mass culture has become the dominant culture for all the social classes
in Australia.
2. Answer questions.
(1) Why were recreation and sports crucial to maintain social harmony and
cohesion?
Working men could not only indulge in a sporting lifestyle of watching sports,
but they could earn a little money from participation as well. The Rugby
League was developed to allow participants to earn money while getting their
heads kicked in. The working class could get pleasure and satisfaction from
sports.
(2) By the mid-19th century, what did Australian sports look like in the eyes of
American visitors?
Making money from sports was the highest priority and drunkenness was
popular. Australians was arrogant and conceited. The character of the
Australians dedicated to money, fun, gambling and boozing which was
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instantly recognizable.
(3) What did the victory of the Melbourne Cup mean to Australia?
This victory contributed to the growth of an Australian nation. The
achievements in sports and the prosperity of economy were regarded as the
key elements in Australian character and a sense of well-being. Recreation
and money making was key to its national happiness.
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