Being Australian Essay, Research Paper

?Being Australian?

What is the Australian National Identity? Who can decide what it is? Who is

truly Australian? These questions have been asked throughout this country?s short life.

Many have different views on what is what, but I believe that you can?t really just say

well this is what an Australian is and that?s that. But there are definitely unique

qualities about ?Australians? that are evident. The booklet entitled ?Being Australian?

has many different representations on what is Australian, these are the images that

came from that booklet.

?…During the colonial era, many of the true Australian qualities were shown.

They showed, ?resourcefulness, independence, mateship, egalitarianism, and endurance

to name a few?…Distinct Australian qualities(traits) were seen to be identifiable and

reflected the democratic and egalitarian values and aspirations of the people?.

There were other people with very strong views on what is Australian. ?By the

term Australian we mean not just those who have been merely born in Australia. All

white men who come to these shores- with a clean record- and who leave behind them

the memory of class distinctions and the religious differences of the old world; all men

who place the happiness, the prosperity, the advancement of their adopted country

before the interests of imperialism are Australian?.

Then there were other people like Henry Lawson who described the ?typical

Australian? as having, ?pessimism, callousness, atheism and stoic endurance?. But

unfortunately, according to Fred Broomfields, Henry Lawson ?is not the seizer and

historian of the typical Australian, simply because there is no such being…But these

things are common to all isolated people?.

Fred Broomfields, also wrote that there is the typical ?small town? Australian.

?The climate breeds a desire for out-of-door exercise. Men will transact business under

verandahs, and make appointments at the corners of streets. The evening stroll will be

an institution…The boys, brought up outside their homes…learn to roam, and as they

conquer difficulties for themselves…learn to care little for their parents?.

James Hogan stated that there is definitely three traits most evident in an

Australian and they are:

1 An inordinate love of field sports.

2 A Very decided disinclination to recognise the authority of parents

or superiors.

3 A grievous dislike to mental effort

There are many different views on what is Australian, but it is also so difficult

to say, as there is ?an Australian of the coast, an Australian of the bush and an

Australian of the city?; so which do you choose. But Australia has been put together

with many races and cultures and that?s just how it is, but as W.K.Hancock said, ?the

unity of Australia means nothing if it did not imply a united race?.