- Title
- Bushmen and bush parsons: the shaping of a rural myth
- Creator
- Carey, Hilary M.
- Relation
- Journal of Australian Colonial History Vol. 13, p. 1-26
- Relation
- http://www.une.edu.au/humanities/jach/contents/vol13.php
- Publisher
- University Of New England, School of Humanities
- Resource Type
- journal article
- Date
- 2011
- Description
- In his celebrated, much contested, but still provocative thesis, Russel Ward proposed that in the nineteenth century the unique lifestyle of the colonial bushman was critical for the development of what he called the 'national mystique'. Originating among workers in the remote pastoral industry, Ward argued that the bushman ethos was subsequently promoted through the labour movement to a much wider audience. Towards the end of the nineteenth century, the bush legend was given an additional, literary veneer through its adoption by magazines such as The Lone Hand and the Bulletin and the work of writers such as Henry Lawson, Joseph Furphy and A. B. 'Banjo' Paterson. Since the publication of The Australian Legend in 1958, the Ward thesis has been revised and reviewed in many directions. Feminist critics, notably Marilyn Lake, have pointed out the Australian legend was far from universal and, indeed was significant as much for what it excluded — women, foreigners, and Aboriginal people — as for what it included, notably single, white, British men. Even the rural origins of the legend have been challenged by Graeme Davison, who demonstrated that, whatever its hypothetical origins in the colonial outback might have been, the core audience for the later, literary promotion of the bush legend was not rural people so much as single, urban men. For this audience, the bush represented an alluring alternative to the lowpaying, monotonous jobs of the expanding cities.
- Subject
- bush men; Australia; history; myths; clergy; Russel Ward
- Identifier
- http://hdl.handle.net/1959.13/1036395
- Identifier
- uon:13272
- Identifier
- ISSN:1441-0370
- Language
- eng
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