An Australian Type?
Selections and the Bushman Myth
 By 1880 many colonists had gained land (or selections)




from pastoralists due to a series of Selection Acts in the
1860s.
By 1890 selectors alone held 2 million acres of cultivated
land
Working the land was hard – many lacked farming
experience, had low productivity and output whilst facing
a life of isolation.
Australian in the 1890s was undergoing an economic
depression which led to a mystique of men working the
land.
Urban Australians would celebrate this manufactured
ideal of independence, mateship and egalitarianism.
The Bush
 ‘The bush’ was described in literature with romantic
connotations and was intimately linked to the
uniqueness of Australia.
 The ‘bushman’ became the ideal or mythical
Australian; celebrated in literature and art as the
‘real Australian’. The image was masculine,
independent, hardworking, classless and confident.
It distinguished itself from being British.
Art and the Bush
 The ‘bush ethos’ that rural life was more authentically
Australian to any other form of Australian life was
present and celebrated in the artistic works of the
Heidelberg School – Tom Roberts, Frederick McCubbin,
Arthur Streeton and Charles Condor.
 These artists focused on the light, heat, space and
ruggedness of the Australian bush.
 Tom Roberts’ ‘Shearing the rams” painting was intended
to capture the “meaning and spirit of strong masculine
labour”. Even the sheep being shorn were rams – most
wool came from female sheep.
Art and the Bush
 The Heidelberg School did indeed celebrate the bush yet
most did not personally experience rural life. They lived
largely urban lives – Roberts painted ‘Shearing the Rams’
in his city studio after a short country trip while many
other Heidelberg School artists did not venture a few
kilometres from their urban homes to create their
impressionist paintings (Macintyre, 2009).
 Poems and novels by Henry Lawson, ‘Banjo’ Patterson
and Joseph Furphy (aka Tom Collins) celebrated rural
life – its hardships and unique characters it generated.
The ‘Bushman’s Bible’ or The Bulletin
 The Bulletin was a radical socialist weekly newspaper
that declared itself as the ‘bushman’s bible’ with a
masthead that read, ‘Australia for the White Man’
 The Bulletin was quite outspoken in what it stood
for:

A republic, one man/one vote, state revenue from the Land,
secular education, a “United Australia and Protection against
the World”
 And against:
 Religion in politics, “the Chinese”, “Imperial Federation”
The Bushman’s Bible
 Est. 1880, by 1900 a circulation of 80,000 and was the
most popular with itinerant miners, shearers, timberworkers – many of these men contributed poems, short
stories and cartoons.
 It did promote a narrow form of nationalism but its
influence has been questioned by historians of late.
 Most of The Bulletin’s writers and editors lived in capital
cities rather than in the bush. Their squalid and cramped
living conditions were in direct contrast to rural life.
Subsequently it is little surprising that the bush would be
so idealised by a group of men who had never lived their
for long periods of time.
The Bushman’s Bible
 The Bulletin was most popular in NSW and
Queensland.
 It promoted and celebrated their narrow
interpretation of national sentiment that excluded
women, non-whites, Christian churches, Judaism,
capitalists and British loyalists.
 Subsequently The Bulletin was a significant player in
shaping the national identity of Australia.
The Rise of Unionism
 By the 1870s unions had become well organised and
militant (using aggressive strategies like strikes,
occupations, boycotts) and were successful when the
economy was thriving.
 Trades and Labour Councils were established in
nearly every colony that represented a large number
of unions.
 Intercolonial trade union congresses were held with
the express purpose of excluding Asian labour,
establishing a basic wage and having union reps
elected to colonial parliaments.
The Rise of Unionism
 1890s saw Australia experience a severe economic
depression.
 Australian Shearers’ Union founded in 1886
representing shearers in NSW, Victoria and SA.
 Shearers suffered some of the worst working
conditions in Australia.
 Falling wool prices internationally led pastoralists to
drop shearers already low wages in 1891. Queensland
shearers went on strike – almost all shearing sheds
in Qld closed. The union leaders were arrested and
jailed and the strike collapsed by mid-year.
Rise of Unionism
 Further strikes and battles between labour and
capital continued.
 1890: ship officers sought to associate with the
Melbourne Trades Hall Council. Shipowners tried to
stop it – the officers and crew striked, miners at
Broken Hill and 16,000 shearers also went on strike
in solidarity.
 At the time unemployment was high so there were
many willing to work at these jobs while the regular
workers went on strike. This was known as being a
strike breaker or a ‘scab’.
Rise of Unionism
 Strike breakers or scabs had to be protected by
various security forces – mounted troops, armed
soldiers and/or police.
 1892: miners at Broken Hill went on strike over
wages. Many of these miners were reduced to
debilitating poverty. The strike collapsed eventually
and its leaders arrested.
 The repeated losses of these strikes convinced many
workers that improvements in their wages and
conditions could only be won through political as
well as industrial (strikes, protests, etc.) action.
The Australian Labor Party
 Labor Electoral Leagues joined forces to form the





Australian Labor party (spelt ‘Labor’ to distinguish it
from the British Labour Party).
Members of this new party sought to represent worker
and union interests in colonial parliaments.
Electoral success first occurred in NSW 1891 where 36 of
45 ALP candidates won Legislative Assembly seats.
The first ALP government was elected in Qld in 1899.
When the Federal Parliament first met in 1901 there were
24 ALP members.
White male workers now had a significant voice and
influence in Australia yet the non-white and female
population were still excluded.
An ‘Australian Type’?
 1887 - The Bulletin defined ‘Australian’ as such: “All
white men…with a clean record…[that] leave behind the
memory of class distinctions…religious differences of the
old world; all men who place happiness, the prosperity,
the advancement of their adopted country before the
interests of imperialism are Australian...No nigger, no
Chinaman, no lascar, no kanaka, no purveyor of cheap
coloured labour, is an Australian.”
 1890 - James Hogan attributed three characteristics to
the ‘The Coming Australian’: 1. An inordinate love of field
sports; 2. An disinclination to recognise forms of
authority; 3. A dislike for mental effort.
An ‘Australian Type’
 Henry Parkes said this at the Australian Federation
Conference in Melbourne in 1890: “Why should not
the name of an Australian be equal to that of a
Briton…Make yourselves a united people. Appear
before the world as one…”
 The idea that Australians were developing physical
and social characteristics superior to their British
peers had gain traction with a number of groups and
became a source of pride for many.
An ‘Australian Type’?
 The Boer War provided an opportunity for
Australian men to prove their physical prowess.
Writers like Rudyard Kipling described the
Australians in glowing terms and in many ways
superior to their British compatriots.
 However there were competing visions amongst
colonialists of what Australians should be identified
as. These competing interpretations manifested in
various organisations established during that time.
Imperial Federation League (1884-1894)
 This organisation rejected the notion of being both
Australian and members of the British Empire.
 Instead they desired an Imperial Federation that
would unite Britain with all colonies of the empire
into a single Federation.
 This single world colonial or Imperial Federation
would act as an supreme policy-making body for the
British Empire. Common defence and financial
interests could be organised under this umbrella
organisation.
The Imperial Federation League
 The majority of their supporters were wealthy squatters,
bankers and businessmen.
 Enjoyed significant support in Victoria and Tasmania yet
after 1890 supported declined greatly.
 According to Charles Blackton this decline was due to: (i)
underestimating the extent of national feeling that did
not want to be ruled by an external governing body; (ii) a
widespread lack of understanding of the aims of the IFL;
(iii) the differences over immigration policy; (iv)
widespread opposition from nationalist groups like the
Australian Natives Association and the popular press.
The Republican Movement
 The direct opponents of the IFL was the Republican





Union formed in 1887.
Strongly opposed the monarchy and aristocrats
The vision for the nation was a republic that promoted
egalitarianism, material wealth for all and a ‘workers
Utopia’ and to break all ties with Britain.
Republicans included bush workers, unionists, selectors
and Irish Catholics
Inspired by the American (1775-1783) and French
revolutions (1789-1799). French revolution was based on
freedom, equality and fraternity (brotherhood).
Press that supported republicanism included the
Bulletin, Boomerang and the Hummer.
Australian Natives Association
 One of the most prominent groups to argue for
Federation was the Australian Natives Association.
 Est. 1871 membership was restricted to white males
born in Australia with a motto of ‘Advance Australia’
 Agenda: strengthening Australian defence,
protecting industries through tariffs on imports,
improving social welfare and achieving ‘White
Australia’.
 Unlike republicans the ANA were loyal to Australia
and the British Empire.
Australian Natives Association
 They wanted the colonies to federate into one nation




yet also wanted to maintain their ties to the Empire.
ANA had a deep pride in being ‘Australian’
“We need a vigorous and undivided Australian
sentiment’
The ANA sought to celebrate and develop Australian
culture in literature and other pursuits.
They also sought to be outspoken on all matters
relating to the direction the emerging nation would
take.
Issues of Representation
 It is important to note that ANA appropriated the title
“native” disregarding the forty thousand years of
Aboriginal occupation.
 Diane McDonald notes that visions for national identity
is problematic. According to McDonald Australian
identity was being forged by groups through the context
of their competing agendas. However as these groups
contributed to Australian identity that there was not one
singular identity.
 As McDonald argues students must be mindful not to
focus on stereotypes and consider who was not
represented, “where are the ‘absent voices’ of women
and aborigines in the bushman legend?”.
Bibliography
Macintyre, S., A Concise History of Australia,
Cambridge University Press, Melbourne, 2009.
McDonald, D., “Australian Nationalism Until 1918” in
Readings: Images of the Nation, HTAV,
Collingwood, 1997.