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Who's on the Beach?
Lisa Gunders, Department of English, University of Queensland
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The arguments presented in this paper rely on the idea that the traditional mythology of the beach in Australian culture is based on discourses of leisure, particularly middle-class leisure, and carefree existence. Against this, it posits the culture of the bush, as promoted in the speeches of John Howard, which he sees as embodying the ideal Australian values. Whereas the beach is a place of leisure, the bush is a place of labour. The lifestyle of the beach, in this traditional sense, threatens to undermine the work ethic proscriptions of neo-liberal ideologies. However, in recent years the 'lifestyle' of the beach has been appropriated by those who have 'made it' in neo-liberal terms - the "Seachange" phenomenon. The beach then, rather than the great cultural equaliser, becomes the ultimate reward for the ethics of the bush.
