An Australian bush track / by J.D. Hennessey.

Mode of access: Internet.

Harry Heathcote of Gangoil: a tale of Australian bush life.

Mode of access: Internet.

The Populist Message of Australian Country Music

Australian country music is influenced by American country music and Australian bush ballads. This music idealises genuine true blue inhabitants of an idealised rural heartland and fuses nationalism with agrarian mythology. The lyrics of a number of country songs contain a populist political message, which is frequently nationalistic but is a form of nationalism.

The big blue

For the 1.5 million travellers who annually visit the Blue Mountains to experience the Australian Bush, it just got closer. The Echo Point redevelopment by Tract Consultants is a megastructure in the void.

Gyration

European Renaissance and Romantic landscape appeared in vistas. The conditions of the industrial revolution and, according to Patrick Maynard and Jonathon Crary, the film camera especially, led to a Modernist re-vision vividly recorded in Xavier Herbert’s contrary Modernist vision, prompted by seeing the Australian bush, its ‘... stunted trees, the mulga and the wilga and the gimlet gum, doing a kind of dance, spinning past, seeming to swing away from the train to the horizon and race ahead, to come back...the same set of trees in endless gyration’.

Outlaw-in

For the 2014 McClelland Gallery Sculpture Survey and Award Bozo ink created a scaled down model of The McClelland Gallery. Crash-landed in the Australian bush, the gallery’s belly is exposed, and into it the viewer can poke their head. Continuing our investigation into space, identity and Australian art history we look to the viewer to become panoptic in their view of the gallery and its surrounds, and at the same time the subject under surveillance. We encourage the viewer to cross the threshold from subject to object – to break the sanctity of the object/gallery. Like most of our works the invitations are many, we layer real-time experience with fictional narratives, illusions and copies. As much as we question the integrity of space we ask the viewer to consider their complicity in the history and occupation of it.

Bush Blitz aids description of three new species and a new genus of Australian beeflies (Diptera, Bombyliidae, Exoprosopini).

Bush Blitz is a three-year multimillion dollar program to document the plants and animals in hundreds of properties across Australia's National Reserve System. The core focus is on nature discovery identifying and describing new species of plants and animals. The Bush Blitz program has enabled the collection and description of beeflies (Diptera, Bombyliidae) from surveys in Western Australia and Queensland. Three new species of Australian beeflies belonging to the Exoprosopini are described; Palirika mackenziei Lambkin, sp. n., Palirika culgoafloodplainensis lambkin, sp. n., and Larrpana bushblitz Lambkin, sp. n. Phylogenetic analysis of 40 Australian exoprosopine species belonging to the Balaana generic-group Lambkin & Yeates, 2003 supports the placement of the three new species into existing genera, and the erection and description of the new genus Ngalki Lambkin, gen. n. for Ngalki trigonium (Lambkin & Yeates, 2003), comb. n. Revised keys are provided for the genera of the Australian Balaana genus-group and the species of Palirika Lambkin & Yeates, 2003 and Larrpana Lambkin & Yeates, 2003. With the description of the three new species and the transferral of Munjua trigona Lambkin & Yeates, 2003 into the new genus Ngalki Lambkin, gen. n., three genera are rediagnosed; Munjua Lambkin & Yeates, 2003, Palirika and Larrpana.

Flagging Spaces : exploring the myth of the Australian beach as an egalitarian space

The Australian beach is now accepted as a significant part of Australian national culture and identity. However, Huntsman (2001) and Booth (2001) both believe that the beach is dying: “intellectuals have failed to apply to the beach the attention they have lavished on the bush…” (Huntsman 2001, 218). Yet the beach remains a prominent image in contemporary literature and film; authors such as Tim Winton and Robert Drewe frequently set their stories in and around the coast. Although initially considered a space of myth (Fiske, Hodge, and Turner 1987), Meaghan Morris labelled the beach as ‘ordinary’ (1998), and as recently as 2001 in the wake of the Sydney Olympic Games, Bonner, McKee, and Mackay termed the beach ‘tacky’ and ‘familiar’. The beach, it appears, defies an easy categorisation. In fact, I believe the beach is more than merely mythic or ordinary, or a combination of the two. Instead it is an imaginative space, seamlessly shifting its metaphorical meanings dependent on readings of the texts. My studies examine the beach through five common beach myths; this paper will explore the myth of the beach as an egalitarian space. Contemporary Australian national texts no longer conform to these mythical representations – (in fact, was the beach ever a space of equality?), instead creating new definitions for the beach space that continually shifts in meaning. Recent texts such as Tim Winton’s Breath (2008) and Stephen Orr’s Time’s Long Ruin (2010) lay a more complex metaphorical meaning upon the beach space. This paper will explore the beach as a space of egalitarianism in conjunction with recent Australian fiction and films in order to discover how the contemporary beach is represented.

Flagging spaces : exploring representations of ownership on the Australian beach

The Australian beach is a significant element of our national identity. Since the majority of the population lives on the coastlines of the continent, the beach (rather than the Bush) plays an important role to many Australians. Yet the beach can also be a complex setting because of the often complicated concepts of ownership that surround it. ‘Flagging Spaces’ examines the layers of complexity surrounding textual representations of ownership of the beach space. In particular, this paper explores the Indigenous representation on the beach moving through to the role of multiculturalism on the beach space in the wake of the 2005 Cronulla riots, using specific textual examples such as Sacred Cows (Heiss 1996), Australia (dir. Baz Luhrmann 2008), Heaven (dir. Tracey Moffatt 1997), Radiance (dir. Rachel Perkins 1998), Butterfly Song (Jenkins 2005), and Bra Boys (dir. Sonny Abberton 2006).

Cultural relativity as exchange : J.W. Lindt’s 'bush character and Aboriginal' from 'The Grafton Album', circa 1872

J.W.Lindt’s Colonial man and Aborigine image from the GRAFTON ALBUM: “On chemistry and optics all does not depend, art must with these in triple union blend” (text from J.W. Lindt’s photographic backing card) In this paper, I follow an argument that Lindt held a position in his particular colonial environment where he was simultaneously both an insider and an outsider and that such a position may be considered prerequisite in stimulating exchange. A study of the transition of J.W. Lindt in Grafton, N.S.W. in the 1860s from a traveller to a migrant and subsequently to a professional photographer, as well as Lindt’s photographic career, which evolved through strategic action and technical approaches to photography, bears witness to his cultural relativity. One untitled photograph from this period of work constructs a unique commentary of Australian colonial life that illustrates a non-hegemonic position, particularly as it was included in one of the first albums of photographs of Aborigines that Lindt gifted to an illustrious person (in this case the Mayor of Grafton). As in his other studio constructions, props and backdrops were arranged and sitters were positioned with care, but this photograph is the only one in the album that includes a non-Aborigine in a relationship to an Aborigine. An analysis of the props, technical details of the album and the image suggests a reconciliatory aspect that thwarts the predominant attitudes towards Aborigines in the area at that time.

An Australian native plant: A novel antimicrobial for the treatment of MRSA

Chronic wounds, often associated with venous and arterial ulcers, diabetes and pressure sores, is an area of great concern. In Australia, the cost of treating chronic wounds is conservatively estimated at $285 million/annum for the treatment of pressure ulcers and $654 million annually for the treatment and management of leg ulcers. Current figures indicate that more than seven million people suffer from chronic wounds worldwide with Australians accounting for approximately 600,000 of this number. Bacterial infection of the wound site is a major issue as contamination of a chronic wound with methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) significantly delays wound healing. Further, once systemic, current antibiotic therapies capable of treating the infection are limited. Aboriginal bush medicine has been used for thousands of years for the treatment of wounds and sores. Hence, we selected a native Australian plant to evaluate its bactericidal activity against MRSA.

Bitou bush and boneseed eradication and containment in Australia

Bitou bush and boneseed (Chrysanthemoides monilifera subsp. rotundata (DC.) T.Norl. and C. monilifera subsp. monilifera (L.) T.Norl., respectively) are highly invasive environmental weeds that pose a serious threat to Australia’s natural ecosystems and biota. Bitou bush threatens coastal plant communities in New South Wales (NSW), eastern Victoria and southeast Queensland (Qld), while boneseed threatens inland and coastal native plant communities across NSW, South Australia (SA), Tasmania, Victoria, and Western Australia (WA). Over 200 plant species and ecological communities in Australia are negatively impacted by these weeds (ARMCANZ et al. 2000, DEC 2006) and over 15% (approx. 120 million ha) of Australia is susceptible to invasion (see maps in Weiss et al 2008). In 2000, the National Bitou Bush and Boneseed Strategic Plan (ARMCANZ et al. 2000) was approved as part of the Commonwealth’s Weeds of National Significance initiative. A key goal of this plan is to prevent the spread of bitou bush and boneseed in Australia. A national program sponsored by the Australian Government and the affected states has resulted in the development of national containment and eradication zones that prevent the spread of bitou bush and boneseed. This paper presents an overview of these bitou bush and boneseed containment and eradication programs.

Impact of control strategies on bellyache bush (Jatropha gossypiifolia L.) mortality, seedling recruitment, population dynamics, pasture yield and cost analysis

Bellyache bush (Jatropha gossypiifolia L.) is an invasive weed that has the potential to greatly reduce biodiversity and pasture productivity in northern Australia’s rangelands. This paper reports an approach to develop best practice options for controlling medium to dense infestations of bellyache bush using combinations of control methods. The efficacy of five single treatments including foliar spraying, slashing, stick raking, burning and do nothing (control) were compared against 15 combinations of these treatments over 4 successive years. Treatments were evaluated using several attributes, including plant mortality, changes in population demographics, seedling recruitment, pasture yield and cost of treatment. Foliar spraying once each year for 4 years proved the most cost-effective control strategy, with no bellyache bush plants recorded at the end of the study. Single applications of slashing, stick raking and to a lesser extent burning, when followed up with foliar spraying also led to significantly reduced densities of bellyache bush and changed the population from a growing one to a declining one. Total experimental cost estimates over 4 successive years for treatments where burning, stick raking, foliar spraying, and slashing were followed with foliar spraying were AU$408, AU$584, AU$802 and AU$789 ha–1, respectively. Maximum pasture yield of 5.4 t ha–1 occurred with repeated foliar spraying. This study recommends that treatment combinations using either foliar spraying alone or as a follow up with slashing, stick raking or burning are best practice options following consideration of the level of control, changes in pasture yield and cost effectiveness.