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Max Dupainis regarded as one of Australia's most significant photographers. For the first time, this book charts his work in relation to the impact in Australia of 'body culture', a broad ranging movement in the interwar period that was concerned with the revitalisation of the individual and social body. In this engaging and dynamic book, Dr Crobie persuasively argues, through both text and illustrations, that our understanding of photography is enlivened when it is seen as part of this movement. In particular, she shows how Australia's most distinctive contrbution to 'body culture', was through the depiction of the lifesaver and the surfer and that the popularity of these iconic figures was largely assembled through photography. ... Read more

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Details the origin, history, traditional way of life, and religion of the aborigines of Australia, as well as their persecution, current status, and struggle to preserve their culture and identity. ... Read more

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Sixteen of Australia's foremost poets are featured in this volume. They talk candidly about their lives and work: of the craft, the rigour, the pangs and pleasures of their calling; of winged moments caught, however fleetingly, on the page.
These writers also speak of transformation and transcendence, the creative process, their individual modes and methods of writing and the act of writing itself. The interviews provide valuable insights on such topics as: gender and writing; landscape; the function of poetry and the poet's social role; influences embraced and withstood - literary, personal, local, regional, national, international. The writers and their poetry are discussed from both within and beyond "Australian" borders.
This collection offers a broad range of Australian poets, most of whom are now in the middle to later years of their career. These poets have contributed significantly to the life and quality of poetry in Australia over recent decades, and continue to play pivotal roles in Australia's cultural domain today, as the country moves towards the threshold of a new century.
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This is the first book to investigate Australian folklore as a topic of serious study. It provides a framework from which a coherent view of social development is expressed through different forms of folklore, and emphasizes the continuing process of the creation of folklore using both past and current examples. ... Read more

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In any settler and/or postcolonial society, heritage is a complex and contested topic that involves indigenous, imperial and other migrant components. In Australia, this situation is compounded by the unique characteristics of the country's natural environment, the considerable diversity of its migrant intake and the demographic and technological imbalances between its indigenous and settler populations. The contributors to this proposed volume are predominantly geographers by training, and, while younger scholars are represented, in many cases they are long established expert authorities, internationally recognised within their respective fields. Their interests span the full range of the discipline and their practical experience extends through the areas of tourism, planning, heritage management, environmental studies and local government. The aim of this book is to demonstrate, through a representative set of case studies from across the country's states and capital cities, the range and diversity of heritage issues currently confronting Australia and the value of geographical approaches in their description, analysis and, possibly, resolution. ... Read more

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This digital document is an article from The Australian Journal of Politics and History, published by University of Queensland Press on December 1, 2003. The length of the article is 6744 words. The page length shown above is based on a typical 300-word page. The article is delivered in HTML format and is available in your Amazon.com Digital Locker immediately after purchase. You can view it with any web browser.

From the author: This historical study provides an account of the Australian Audit Office from its formation in 1901 until the end of the term of Australia's first Auditor-General in 1925. The Audit Office was created to assist the Commonwealth Government in discharging and reporting on its accountability for the economical use of resources. The philosophy upon which the Audit Office was created was one based on small government where a minimalist role for the audit function was envisaged. Accordingly, the initial Audit Act dictated a detailed audit methodology. However, the expansion of Commonwealth activities due to the outbreak of the First World War, the realities of a decentralised Commonwealth administration and the more commercial activities of government created numerous problems for both the Office and government. The Auditor-General was unable, or unwilling, to adapt his audit methodologies to suit the changing circumstances of Australian public administration and the workload of the Audit Office periodically fell into backlog. Relations with the executive became strained over these matters prompting intervention by subsequent governments. This early period is important historically as it provides a window through which to view the development of the public sector audit function and its contribution to an efficient public sector. In addition, the events of this period illustrate the importance of relations between the Audit Office and the government, and the role of the Auditor-General in contributing to an efficient public administration.

Citation Details
Title: An impeditive administrative culture? The legacy of Australia's first Auditor-General on the Australian Audit Office (1).
Author: John Wanna
Publication: The Australian Journal of Politics and History (Refereed)
Date: December 1, 2003
Publisher: University of Queensland Press
Volume: 49Issue: 4Page: 469(12)

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What are the hundreds of dreaming tracks in the desert?What happens at a corroboree?What would you do with a witchetty grub?Many Australian Aboriginal people live in the enormous region called the Central Desert in Australia.There are a lot of weird and wonderful things in the desert including giant blood-red rocks, wallabies, carpet snakes, and honey ants. ... Read more

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Accounting for Tastes is the most systematic and substantial study of Australian cultural tastes, preferences and activities ever published. While based on the findings of a survey, the book also includes transcripts from interviews where respondents talk freely about what governs their tastes and preferences in home furnishings, music, books, sports, television programs, and art. It is a book that makes a substantial contribution to the empirical and policy-oriented social inquiry into questions of cultural practices and preferences. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

Aussie True Blue
Australia and Australians are truely unique to the world.They see thingsdifferently, express them differently and seem as laid back as theiraccent.This book lets you share in the Australian lifestyle and throughimages produced with Tony Bennet's words you can see, touch and taste theAustralian lifestyle.Everyone should experience a little of the Land DownUnder and if you can't afford the plane ticket this book is the next bestthing.Sit back in a comfortable chair, take the phone off your hook andget lost in Australia.Share a few hours with the regular Aussie andrelax. ... Read more

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Publisher: Sydney, W. BrooksPublication date: 1912Subjects: BeesBeesNotes: This is an OCR reprint. There may be typos or missing text. There are no illustrations or indexes.When you buy the General Books edition of this book you get free trial access to Million-Books.com where you can select from more than a million books for free. You can also preview the book there. ... Read more

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Originally published in 1912.This volume from the Cornell University Library's print collections was scanned on an APT BookScan and converted to JPG 2000 format by Kirtas Technologies.All titles scanned cover to cover and pages may include marks notations and other marginalia present in the original volume.Please note original contains color images and Cornell's version is printed in black and white only. ... Read more

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Women are rarely if ever mentioned in commentaries upon Australian Christianity and spirituality. Only exceptional women are recognized as authorities on religious matters. Why is this so? Does it matter? Don't people from the same religious tradition share similar experiences of the divine, regardless of their gender?
Rewriting God asks whether women have been writing about the divine and whether their insights are different from those contained in malestream accounts of Australian Christianity and spirituality. An analysis of the writings of popular theologians and religious commentators over the last twenty years suggests that the most popular form of spirituality among Australian theologians is Desert Spirituality. An analysis of women's autobiographical writings, however, suggests that the desert is irrelevant to many women's spiritual experiences. This book, through a close investigation of the fictions of Thea Astley, Elizabeth Jolley and Barbara Hanrahan, attempts to posit alternative forms of women's spirituality and to signal ways in which this spirituality is already being expressed.
From the evidence gathered here, it becomes obvious that traditional expressions of Australian Christianity and spirituality are gender-specific and that they have functioned to deny women's religious experiences and to silence their claims to equality in the sight and service of the divine. It becomes obvious, too, that women have been developing their own forms of religious expression and that these may be expected to supplant gradually withering images of Desert Spirituality. Whether this new imagery will strengthen Australian Christianity or whether it merely marks a decline in the authority of Christianity remains a moot point. ... Read more

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Australian Aboriginal astronomy is a name given to the parts of indigenous Australian culture relating to astronomical subjects ? such as the Sun and Moon, the stars, planets, and the Milky Way, and their motions on the sky. Some Aboriginal groups use the motions of celestial bodies for calendar purposes. Many attribute religious or mythological meanings to celestial bodies and phenomena. There is a diversity of astronomical traditions in Australia, each with its own particular expression of cosmology. However, there appear to be common themes and systems between the groups. ... Read more

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A comprehensive account of the first decade of the graffiti-writing subculture in Melbourne, Australia, this compilation pays tribute to the individual writers and crews who established the city’s reputation as a global street-art presence. Beginning with the year 1983, this volume depicts the rapid changes in styles in these early years as Melbourne’s graffiti changed from simple scrawls to intricate murals of astonishing complexity. Part visual encyclopedia and part social history, this compelling record details the events, spaces, materials, and folklore of what made up the lives of the early graffiti artists.

Customer Reviews (2)

A book done funkily
This book took me way back to the marble / parliament station / city square days.If you don't know what I'm talking about then you just weren't there.

I loved the part about Ron the train driver.I only came across him once or twice.But what an asset he was to the documentation of Melbourne graffiti back in the day.

This book gives slightly heavier attention to the Hurstbridge line than to other lines (obviously because of the majority of the contributors being from that side of town), but the other lines don't miss out.

I was really happy with the couple of guernseys I got in the book (I'm Jamit)... thanks fellas.I only wish I had a camera with me when I finished some of my other pieces and that I was slightly more generous in giving out photos!!

One other guy that got a guernsey here and there was my old buddy Wormy D.I've got no idea where he is these days or what he's up to.I remember Worm from grade 5 onwards at school, particularly grade 7, when we sat and talked about graffiti in what was probably Chinese class.We never did any work, except for improving our sketches, which wasn't on the school curriculum.Anyhow, I had no idea back then that Worm would end up becoming the most prolific bomber Melbourne would ever see.Never before or since have Melbourne's trains been so trashed than by that king of bombing.There was this billiards club at Camberwell Junction called "Phil's" where we used to hang out.

R.I.P. Nabit

Great work Duro & friends.

Kings Way
I bought this book as a Christmas Gift for my son in law - he hasn't seen it yet!He will love it - it is a big book full of the most amazing pictures.It was one of the items on his wish list and from the presentation I can see why he wanted it. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (5)

A-ha! So THAT explains it!
This book was recommended by an Australian member of my work team. Both the Aussies and the Americans in our group found it very helpful. Quick, easy read with plenty of practical examples and advice. Fairly surface-level, but a good start. Would like to see an updated version as most of the bibliography was reference material from the 1970s. Better reference if you have time to dig in deeper would be the CultureShock series.

"Tall poppy, tall poppy, tall poppy"
This book is dated, superficial, and at 70 pages of fairly large type, barely a book at all.I most enjoyed counting the number of times the authors wrote "tall poppy syndrome."

The information in this book is extremely accurate.
After reading this book and agreeing with it's analysis of Americans, I let some of the Americans with whom I work with read it...and yes, they agree that it fits me (an Australian) down to a tee.

The info can help Australians working or living in the USA
The book outlines some basic cultural differences that are hard to finger when you first arrive in the USA from Australia. Many of my work and social experiences living in the USA (from Australia) made a whole lot more senseafter reading this book - for example the emphasis Americans place on theirjob titles, and their comparitive lack of long term friendships...Definitely worth a read for Australians planning to live or do business inthe USA.

Very good review of Aussie/Yank similarities & differences.
The book does a very good job of outlining the differences and similarities between Australians and Americans. The primary benefit of the book is the presentation of this "cultural awareness" in a manner which is readable, enjoyable and directly applicable to business/social situations ... Read more

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High Quality Content by WIKIPEDIA articles! The Workplace Relations Act 1996, as amended by the Workplace Relations Amendment Act 2005, or WorkChoices, which came into effect in March 2006, was a comprehensive change to industrial relations in Australia.The WorkChoices changes were intended to improve employment levels and national economic performance by dispensing unfair dismissal laws for companies under a certain size, removing the "no disadvantage test" which had sought to ensure workers were not left disadvantaged by changes in legislation, and requiring workers submit their certified agreements directly to Workplace Authority rather than going through the Australian Industrial Relations Commission. Additional factors aimed at increasing economic performance included clauses significantly compromising a workforce's ability to legally go on strike, requiring workers to bargain for previously-guaranteed conditions without collectivised representation, and significantly restricting trade union activity and recruitment on the worksite. ... Read more

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Best known to his fans for the flamboyant character Dame Edna Everage, the Australian actor and comedian Barry Humphries is also a painter, composer, and critically acclaimed author. Taking outrageousness to new heights by borrowing from the British Music Hall tradition and the Dada art movement, this brilliant jester of the absurd has made millions laugh by casting stones at everyone and everything, from the Queen of England to Dame Edna's own purple bouffant wig."A Portrait of the Artist as Australian" offers the first critical assessment of Barry Humphries' entire career - as a daring post-modern deconstructionist on stage, film, and television, with sixty-seven stage shows, twenty-four film and thirty-four video appearances, thirty-four television series and seventy-one television appearances, and seventy-two audio recordings, but especially what he calls his 'second career' as author of twenty-nine books. With an oeuvre that includes novels, biographies, autobiographies, editions, compilations, comic books, poetry, dramatic monologues, sketches, film scripts, and several unclassified works, Humphries is a literary and dramatic artist of considerable significance.Arguing that Humphries is one of Australia's greatest writers, Paul Matthew St Pierre reveals a multi-faceted artist whose success is rooted in music halls, Dadaism, and his identity as an Australian. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (8)

St. Pierre, Dada Artist!
The inside back dustjacket flap of this book notes that Paul Matthew St. Pierre is a Dada artist.I suspect (duh!) that he has written his Barry Humphries study precisely in his capacity as a Dadaist, as a tribute to Humphries (himself a Dada artist) but also as, what he calls in the book, a "dadact", an act of subversion in the spirit of Dada.What is he subverting?Well, I think he's deconstructing the whole idea of academic criticism, the very thing that Humphries himself deplores, being taken seriously.If you accept this premise, A Portrait of the Artist as Australian: L'Oeuvre bizarre de Barry Humphries becomes a very complicated book, at once subverting the whole idea of the academic study and undertaking a daunting research project into just about everything Humphries has ever done as a writer and a performer.Did I like the book?Yes, I think it's amazing.It's certainly unlike any other book I have read about Humphries, by John Lahr, Peter Coleman, Ian Britain, and Stephen Alomes.A singular performer, Humphries certainly deserved this kind of singular treatment.Kudos to St. Pierre for having the pluck (Humphries would say the spunk) to write it!

Barry Humphries and Criticism
In his well researched and provocatively written book, Paul Matthew St. Pierre has made a sound case for Barry Humphries as a writer of literature.Certainly, I had not known that Humphries has been writing books throughout his career on the stage.St. Pierre addresses all of Humphries' writing and much of his stage and television work, and comes up with some original interpretations.As an academic, St. Pierre draws on some pretty infamous critics like Derrida and Barthes, but he also mentions some really interesting writers such as Es'kia Mphahlele and my late countrywoman Janet Frame, and somehow makes the mix work.In addition, he seems to be trying something nonacademic by writing a new kind of criticism.I am not sure what kind it is, but Dada criticism comes to mind, the subversion of conventional criticism.This aspect of the book offered a real challenge to me as a reader, because I realized the author was trying to change the rules of the critical game precisely as I was reading his book, which put some of the responsibility on me to play along.I see this as St. Pierre's intellectual challenge to the most avid readers.

Reading to Learn
I have just finished reading A Portrait of the Artist as Australian: L'Oeuvre bizarre de Barry Humphries, which I found an engaging and informative book.Having been familiar with Barry Humphries mainly as Dame Edna Everage, from television and The Royal Tour, I evidently had a lot to learn about him.I hadn't known he was a writer, for example, the author of 29 books.Nor had I known that he draws on music hall and dada in his stage performances as Edna and Sir Les Patterson.One of the most fascinating parts of the book is a chart in which St. Pierre compares some of Dame Edna's and Les Patterson's lines with the conventional spiel of the music hall chairman, who presided over stage shows a century ago: that Humphries might be invigorating some of these old formulas I found quite fascinating.St. Pierre claims that "Sandy Agonistes", which is a Sandy Stone monoloque, is the greatest Australian poem of the 20th-century.I wouldn't know.I haven't had a chance to find a copy of the poem yet, and, I must confess, I am not always sure whether I can take all of St. Pierre's claims seriously, but he has made me very very curious.I know I have to read this poem.So now I have started looking to purchase Humphries' books, records, and CDs (St. Pierre lists hundreds of them in his bibliography), because St. Pierre has intrigued me about the man beneath the make-up, who, I am convinced, must be a great artist.I realize that I knew NOTHING about Barry Humphries before reading this book.Now I think I know quite a bit.But, more important, St. Pierre has made me want to learn EVERYTHING about Humphries.He has created an interest in me.

Who's kidding who here?
I think the joke is on the reader only if one doesn't recognize this satire of a satirist.And Les Patterson, well, I think with his rave review he hopes we won't be aware of his close relationship to Barry Humphries.We all know that rave reviews are often the product of a reciprocal arrangement where you rave about my book and I rave about yours.Come to think of it, though, Mr. Patterson HAS written a book.But I doubt that Mr. Humphries had anything nice to say about it.

Every page satirizes what the author must feel is Mr. Humphries' pompous writing style (or should I say sesquipedalian?) A writing style like this is so distinctive, so exaggerated and bizarre, how can anyone doubt the real author?Barry's memoirs and other books are wonderfully written and hard to put down, whereas I can't imagine anyone plowing through this balderdash.Excuse I for asking, but how did the author ever have the time or inclination to write book like this?More Sir Les and Dame Edna, please!

Reading Barry Humphries' books requires a dictionary close at hand. But here the author has helped us out.All the big stumblers are footnoted, and we are spared having to haul a big heavy dictionary into our beds, or onto the train.But do we really care?

Barry Humphries is a genius.I'm positively in love with Dame Edna and have a real soft spot for the Australian Attaché to the Court of St. James, but--and I mean this with respect--I learned a lot more about Barry Humphries from Women in the Background (not autobiographical!!) This book is Barry on speed or something, and I'd rather have another volume of his autobiography, something that will keep me up until 2 a.m.All I can say in favor of this book is the cover is great.

Laughter Liberates and Informs
Paul St. Pierre's A Portrait of the Artist as Australian (2004)

Paul St. Pierre's thoroughly researched text is a scholarly portrait of Barry Humphries' (the flamboyant character of Dame Edna Everage) entire career as a comic artiste extraordinaire.Humphries is a master of "grotesqueries and bizarreries," whose reputation as an actor, performer, writer, music hall artiste and Dada prankster situate him as the darling of Australian, British, and international artistic communities.The reader is invited to travel through satirical, comedic, entertaining and witty literary work with St. Pierre leading the way as a true pathfinder.Humphries' oeuvre includes dramatic monologues, comic books, (auto)biographies, film scripts, poetry, novels, and sketches.St. Pierre acknowledges Humphries' unique talents:

By playing up and sending up cultural stereotypes, Humphries has encouraged Australians, and others, to laugh not only at him and his characters but also at themselves, at the negation of themselves on stage, and to come up on stage and join in the subversion of their images in the mirror.... Thus, Humphries
invites audiences to find pleasure in subversive things such as Dada, music hall, parody, theatre, kitsch, class, race, gender, and Australiana, as they play in the one-man show, and also to find the act of subverting pleasurable, even laughable. (133)

We owe our gratitude to St. Pierre for introducing to us the world of Humphries' laughter and for his delight in researching and writing this text "not out of opportunism but out of community service, as a note of thanks to Barry Humphries and as an offering to his squillions of fans" (224). If you wish to partake in lively amusement and introspection, then sample Humphries' genius for "putting out bush fires of ignorance, pomposity, seriousness, complacency, provincialism, and political correctness around the world" and pick up a copy of St. Pierre's A Portrait of the Artist as Australian (251).In these troubled times we all need to feel the miraculous properties of laughter to heal our spirits. ... Read more