Connecting you with Australian culture online
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...
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...
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 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 ...
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...
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 Australian film industry got off to a flying start, producing what was probably the world's first full length feature film in 1906. South Australia banned the screening of bushranger films in 1911, Victoria followed in 1912. Colour production came t...
In 1788, the eleven ships of the First Fleet landed their 'cargo' of around 780 British convicts at Botany Bay in New South Wales. From 1788 to 1823, the Colony of New South Wales was officially a penal colony comprised mainly of convicts, marines and th...
With mounting evidence and stories circulating about their seemingly miraculous ability to find people, Aboriginal trackers' abilities became legendary in the minds of white Australians. Paul Raffaele, Aboriginal tracker Teddy Egan and son. The Australi...
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 ...
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...
The Australian film industry got off to a flying start, producing what was probably the world's first full length feature film in 1906. The film was the Tait brothers production The Story of the Kelly Gang, a success in both Australian and British theatr...
Barbara Tucker, Albert Tucker, Arthur Boyd and Sidney Nolan, Hurstbridge, c. The Angry Penguin painters are considered to be the major figures of a modernist movement in Australian art, based in Melbourne, which has determined and shaped Australian conte...
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...
Humour is seen in the Australian use of slang, and across media from cartoons in print, as sketches on radio, as comedy series on television, in films and with witty observations of life in Australian literature. Mocking the wowser is another common elem...
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...
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. ...
Like other art forms, Australian theatre has built on previous traditions and developed over time, shaped by local and international artistic movements, events and trends. Australian theatre history incorporates the stories of many actors, entrepreneurs,...
The Bushranger Site (more info)
This is a children's educational site with comprehensive information on Australian bushrangers. It will be particularly useful for school projects as it boasts a variety of information: detailed biographies, pictures, poems, songs and classroom activiti
Bailup - Ned Kelly Bushranger (more info)
This site is aimed to clear up the numerous misconceptions about the 'Kelly Story', without necessarily seeking to establish a particular point of view. The website gives, a quick history and history in detail of Ned Kelly, Kelly news, Kelly links and mor
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