ABSTRACT
In this chapter, I provide a historical account of the development of Australian masculinity from settlement until the 1970s in relation to both social and geographic environment. In short, it will reconnoitre how the Australian outback and bush have been figured as sites of Australian culture, to the shift in purposing Australian identity in the location of the beach. I demonstrate here how masculinity becomes entangled with the landscape in both spaces in the production of iconic male tropes. Identities such as the colonial swagman, the ANZAC (Australian and New Zealand Army Corp) and the lifesaver surfer emerge in these spaces, each re-embodying the idealised qualities of its previous incarnation. This chapter concludes through an exploration of this hero, the lifesaver surfer, and its relationship to the shift to beach as a site of Australian identity, masculinity, and culture. I conclude this chapter with a discussion of sports and Australian masculinity, focusing particular on the 1960s and 1970s. I argue that sports are not just integral to a performance of masculinity, but, in fact, have a strong tie to colonial imaginings of Australian masculinity. I will highlight how traits identified earlier have become embodied within a new type of iconic male, one that has shifted from an ideal of heroism as understood as the performance of sacrifice, to one embedded within pleasure and entertainment.
