The emergence of the Australian legend in the late nineteenth century is largely explained as a desire of many artists and writers of the period, as an escape from the conditions and pressures of society, and as a retreat into an alternate reality. This essay, will examine the works of Graham Davison, Henry Lawson, Banjo Patterson, Tom Roberts, and many other writers and historians who have contributed, and/or interpreted the Australian legend of the nineteenth century.
In examining these figures, it will analyse and asses how their works were a product of their society, and how they reflect a desire to escape their current situation, and retreat into an alternate reality. In doing this, this essay will make use of Banjo Pattersons works to illustrate how these illusions of the bush legend were nothing more than the figment of the imagination of artists and writers attempting to create a utopian environment, which in reality just didnt exist.
Graham Davison in his text the rise and fall of marvellous Melbourne alludes to the notion of reaction to the conditions of society when he quotes the rural dream was the reflex of the urban nightmare[1]. Graham Davison in this quote juxtaposes the notions of rural and urban conditions, with that of the dream and nightmare situations to highlight the deteriorating conditions of the city in comparison with the utopian alternate reality to which many artists and writers have turned.
This assists in explaining how the conditions of the urban Melbourne and Sydney life, culminated in the creation and development of the Australian legend, based in the outback. Davison extends on this point in another of his publications Sydney and the Bush[2], when he argues that the dream-like land of the west emerged in the 1880s as a retreat, and rebellion against the conditions of the city. Davison furthers his argument by making reference to the Employee/employer disputes of the 1890s, when he comments on the urban conflicts of the same period.
He uses the reference of the Employee disputes as an example, and a symbol of the deteriorating conditions faced in the city and presents it as a strong reason why anyone would feel compelled to retreat, (the worker/employer dispute will be discussed further on). Again Davison contrasts the two notions of a utopian dream-like paradise with that of the down graded hell-like city to emphasis further the impact one location had on the development of the other. Another figure who is well renounded for his contribution to the Australian legend is artist Tom Roberts, who was made famous by his painting sheering the rams in 1891.
This image is an example of a retreat from societys conflicts into a harmonious environment. This image was created in 1890, during the depression period, which as was mentioned, devastated the sheering industry. 95% of the picture is of the sheering shed, which indicates a self-contained world, one in which is blocked off to the rest of society, and hence the illusion of a prosperous world. The other 5% of the picture is a small window which shows the country side of Brocklesby Station, Corowa in East NSW[3], where Roberts began painting it. It is worth mentioning that Roberts completed the painting in his studio in Collins Street, Melbourne[4], hence it is fair to say the picture contains influential elements from both the city and the bush which assisted in moulding the final product and is an example of city the bush being developed from the city). The importance of the idea of a self-contained world is the fact that outside the shed, are major societal problems for example the economic depression, the harshness of the Australian climate, the worker/employer disputes, and the poverty, and unemployment faced in the city.
Both Richard White and Graham Davison support this notion in their references to the conditions of the city life. Davison argues that the 1890s was a period of terrible disillusionment[5], especially for Melburnians. He quotes Urban experiences intensified by the economic crash might almost suffice themselves to explain the value structure, if not the mythological setting of the bush legend[6]. During the period Roberts was painting Shearing the Rams, there was a depression which had devastated the sheering industry, as wool prices were rapidly plummeting, there had been a major overstock of sheep.
As a result many sheep were considered to have become redundant, and thus, slaughtered. This was a disastrous incident, as Australia at the time was supplying two-thirds of the worlds fine wool, so hence; the depression crippled the sheering industry. The image doesnt show this great strain in the industry, in fact it shows a level of competition, and enjoyment, which makes the area inside the shed, seems like a fading world (in relation to the rest of society). When the reality of the context of the time period, and the elements which influenced the picture is introduced, the harmonious world seems to be detached from reality.
The picture in its own way depicts an industry which seems to be alive and thriving, as people are still enjoying what they do, and even competing in friendly competition to get the job done, although, this is not the case, and just as Lawsons the bush legend of this period (designed by artists and writers) was a false Utopian environment, so is this. Hence it is fair to say the picture depicts a world which is fading away. The presence of the old man on the right-hand side gives an allusion to a judge of the competition between the shearers, a manager, or an owner of the barn.
This is an important detail, as during this period, there is an ongoing conflict between employers and employees which led to many unions, strikes, and rebellions (as will be discussed in further on in relation to Banjo Patterson) against the higher, wealthier classes. As again, this element depicts a reality which is false, as the harmonious relationship between the shearers and the employee class was non-existent, hence this picture demonstrates a retreat from the degrading conditions of society, into a false, harmonious, utopian environment, which has become the basis for the Australian legend.
All these elements combined demonstrate how Robertss picture is a prime example of the utopian environment many artists and writers of the time attempted to construct to escape the realities of society. As a result of the deteriorating conditions of society, writers and artists began to create this imaginary Australian, Utopian environment based in the bush. Legend writer Banjo Pattersons most famous poem Waltzing Matilda is a profound example of the reality of the bush culture, and how it wasnt a Utopian environment, instead, it was a harsh, desolate area with its own communital problems.
The poem talks of a man who had retreated to a pond with jumbucks an Aboriginal term for sheep, and had been trailed by a patrol of squatters higher class of authorities, however the swagman, instead of being caught, jumps into the pond, and drowns. At first glance, and to many Australians, Waltzing Matilda exemplifies qualities commonly shown by Australians such as a disregard for the authorities.
In his text, The Australian Legend, Russel Ward[7] discusses this trait, when he argues an Aussies despise of officiousness and authority, especially when it is embedded in military figures, and police. However, the historical context reveals more than what the poem delivers straight up. Historian Rodger Clarke[8] argues the poem was developed as a result of the conflict between workers and their employers. During this period unionisation had emerged in Australia, and the sheep-shearers (employees) were fighting the employers for better wages and conditions.
Employer and writer John Monash[9] supports this notion (Which was also the case in the city with a strong distinction between the classes), when in a letter written in 1891, he criticises the working class calling them raw, ignorant Irishmen, strong and muscular, intemperate, improvident, unclean to look upon, and with not a thought beyond the day, and with the narrowest possible horizon. In his work, the average man exercises no intelligence, and takes and obeys the orders of the ganger (higher class employers) like a horse obeys the reigns blindly.
This demonstrates a critical point of the attitude of the higher class towards that of the workers, illustrating the reasoning behind the feud between the two societal groups. On the 1st of September 1894, four months prior to the development of the Unions, shearers rebelled against the higher class, and set the Dagworth woolshed station in central Queensland ablaze, cremating a hundred sheep[10]. During this incident three police troopers had pursued the rebelling party, and in the chase, one of them, a man named Samuel Hoffmeister, a German man who had been a union organiser[11] had shot himself.
As was discussed prior, during this period, there was an economic depression which virtually crippled the shearing industry, making sheep (wool) a very valuable asset, hence, the seriousness of Hoffmeisters actions. The 1894 Shearers Strike could not have escaped Pattersons attention as it was of national significance, but more importantly, Patterson was actually at the Dagworth station in central Queensland when he was writing Waltzing Matilda a year later in 1895[12]
Banjo Patterson had used this incident and adapted it into a poem to explain the relations (lack thereof) between the two classes of worker and employer to explain the deteriorating conditions of society. This poem depicts the bush conditions which is a much different argument to that of Davison who claims it is the city life which drove people away. While working as a lawyer in the city, a critical tool Patterson harnessed to portray his perceptions of the Australian identity, was a magazine titled the bulletin, which was used by many writers to explore ideas, and argue debates.
A central debate of which was the reality of the bush life, a topic Patterson was well aware of, as he was born in Orange, a small country town. However, Patterson was constantly debating with a fellow writer, and Australian icon, Henry Lawson, who subscribed to the notion of the Australian utopian identity which was a major development of the period, and who had a much narrower view of the bush lifestyle, although he had visited North Queensland on a number of occasions, but was mainly brought up in the city.
Patterson and Lawson frequently argued and contradicted each other about the reality of the bush. This brings up the issue of reality vs. the fiction of the nature of bush life. Historian Richard White, in an article titled Bohemians and the Bush[13], discusses this notion, and argues that the writings of the bush were misinformed as they were written from a city point of view an escapist ideology in which they created something to retreat into a utopia which did not exist.
He argues this point when he quotes The bush simply provided a frame on which to hang a set of preconceptions. White furthers this point when he refers to a collection of writers who had decided that to get a true glimpse of what the country rural life was like. Henry Lawsons original expectations of the bush culture were summed up in a piece of poetry he wrote in 1888 further out may be the pleasant scenes of which our poets boast[14].
However the reality of the bush context was a rude shock for Lawson who writes that on the journey through Byrock, They were soon depressed by the soul-destroying sameness, relieved only by dreams of city pleasures and delights, so they turned off the track to the Bogan River on reaching it[15]. This is a prime example of how the bush legend was very much just an alternate reality in which writers and artists could escape one in which didnt exist it was a utopian environment created in the minds of dreamers.
Patterson on the other hand very much illustrates the true conditions of the rural outback, as in Waltzing Matilda; the historical context is brought out, revealing a very grim reality. Russel Ward, an influential historian who is regarded by Graham Davison as the Australian Identities most influential interpreter[16] also subscribes to the notion that the conditions of the bush were harsh, and degrading, and he points strongly to the Australian geography as the most important influence which shaped the life of the outback community[17].
Ward also points to economic factors and the effects of land legislation[18] as other equally important factors which contributed to the harshness of the Australian outback culture, proving (in his terms) that the bush ideal as presented by many artists and writers, was nothing more than the figment of their imagination, and used as a means to escape the urban conditions. Interestingly, the key ideological element which is at the heart of the Australian identity mateship is derived from socialist values, and is presented through two particular writers, Henry Lawson during the 1890s.
As Graham Davison writes in Sydney and the bush[19], Lawson, in 1891 was an active member of a socialist circle, whose members were banded together to help each other combat the deteriorating conditions of the city. The secretary of this movement, which was to be known as the Australian socialist league, was a man named E. J. Brady, who had disobeyed his employer, and as such was dismissed, and now lived a life similar to Lawsons.
Graham Davison examines this notion when he refers to a piece of Lawsons poetry, which he believes precisely establishes his urban situation, and so accurately describes his legacy of loneliness, as a result of the poor societal conditions. They lie, the men who tell us for reasons of their own that want is here a stranger, and that miserys unknown; for where the nearest suburb and the city proper meet, my window is still level with the faces of the street drifting past, drifting past, to the beat of weary feet, while I sorrow for the owners of those faces in the street[20].
This was the sort of life many artists, writers, or just plain people experienced in the cities of either Melbourne and/or Sydney. Their engagement in this movement laid a basis for the egalitarian and collectivist elements of socialist values, which were also central to the bush ethos, and as such, these ideals were transformed into the notion of mateship. The idea of banding together to help each other combat hard times was and is a central theme in the notion of mateship, and in this context, the ideals were formed out of a desire to escape the pressures, and the conditions faced in Australian society in 1890.
All these artists and writers in their own way have a desire to escape the pressures, and conditions of reality in particular the, poverty, and class distinctions. These harsh realities had forced these artists and writers to create an imaginary world, which had at its core the notions of, egalitarianism, collectivism (which were used to create mateship), and healthy settings. This utopian environment developed and created a national identity, however, its creation was developed as a result of a desire to escape from the harshness of society, and retreat into an alternate reality, free from strain.
