Australian Stories matching your query...

The bush has an iconic status in Australian life and features strongly in any debate about national identity, especially as expressed in Australian literature, painting, popular music, films and foods. The bush was revered as a source of national ideals b...

The songs and music that has come from people's experiences of living and surviving in the Australian bush has become known in Australia as 'bush music'. The convict songs of the early days of the Australian colonies became the foundation of Australia's ...

Portrait of Henry Lawson by Sir John Longstaff. Colin Roderick , who published a biography of Lawson called Henry Lawson: a life, suggests that Lawson suffered from manic depression and sought refuge from his mood swings in alcohol. Much of Lawson's work...

Australian folklore, its traditions, customs and beliefs are based on both Indigenous and also non-Indigenous people's knowledge and experience of history in Australia. Some of Australia's folklore remembers the relationship between Europeans and Aborigi...

Before white settlement, Aboriginal people survived off the native plants and animals of the Australian environment for thousands of years. Bush foods such as berries, roots and nectars were a vital part of the aboriginal diet in many areas. In the late...

In the early days of the Australian colonies, convict ballads and songs became the foundation of Australia's later day folk music and its first original compositions. Bush songs, ballads and music influenced and defined the folk music of the 1950s. Indi...

McFarlane & Erskine, Gold escort attacked by bushrangers, 187-, print: lithograph. Image courtesy of the National Library of Australia: nla.pic-an8420450. Black Caesar escaped into the bush in 1790 with a musket where he later joined five or six other es...

While Australia has no single uniform national costume, an Australian national dress style, based on specific local dress styles, has emerged in response to climate, lifestyle and identity. An Australian style can be seen clearly in the main types of loc...

Australian novels are an impressive collection of written works, and represent a dynamic body of excellent writers, some with significant international awards to their credit. The Australian poet Alec Hope said that, 'The Bunyip of Australian literature ...

The Australian Institute of Music has been preparing young Australians for music careers since 1968. This is a portal to other Australian music websites of various genres, including jazz, blues, pop, rock and classical. Australian country and folk music...

Works by many contemporary visual artists in Western Australia demonstrate a vital consciousness of the land. Western Australian art traces a presence on the land, a cultural loss and, ultimately, a belief in the future. Contemporary artists such as pai...

Protestant and Roman Catholic churches hold Christmas Day services on 25 December. The Eastern churches - the Ethiopian Orthodox church, Russian Orthodox church and the Armenian church - celebrate Christmas on 6 or 7 January. Christmas is the celebratio...

Australian language, letters and literature in Australia has been influenced by Aboriginal storytelling, convict tales and the desire by colonists to relate their experiences in a new country. Similarly, the bush ballads of Henry Lawson and Andrew 'Banjo...

Unknown artist, Ben Hall, the bushranger, c. The exploits, capture and death of 'Brave' Ben Hall in the 1860s are part of Australian folklore, as well as marking a historical shift in the treatment of bushrangers. Hall's exploits and the apparent ineffi...

One of Australia's greatest treasures is her flora - a staggering 24,000 species of native plants have been identified compared to England's 1700 native plants. Australia's native plants vary across the many different natural environments of the country....

Portrait of Slim Dusty at the Australia Day Concert (i.e. Australia Day Live), Sydney Entertainment Centre, 1984, transparency. Country music, a derivative of folk music, originated in southern and western USA and consisted mainly of rural songs accompan...

Indigenous music in Australia uses the environment itself to generate unique sounds and rhythms. Australian musicians performing across a range of genres, or styles, have achieved international recognition with a unique Australian approach. The opera sin...

John Glover (1767-1849), Australian landscape with cattle: the artist's property Patterdale , c. Image courtesy of the National Library of Australia: an2253188. The Heidelberg School was the first significant art movement in Australia. ...

Unknown, Portrait of the bushranger Ned Kelly, 1880, glass plate negative. More books, songs and websites have been written about Ned Kelly and the Kelly Gang than any other group of Australian historical figures. Unknown, Kate Kelly, sister of Ned Kelly...

The first ship and crew to chart the Australian coast and meet with Aboriginal people was the Duyfken captained by Dutchman, Willem Janszoon. In 1770, Englishman Lieutenant James Cook charted the Australian east coast in his ship HM Barque Endeavour. Coo...