ABSTRACT
This chapter analyzes a number of scene stories taken from two smaller Australian cities: Brisbane and Hobart. It examines how the aspirant, developing and unstable nature of these two cities appears in various ideologies surrounding music practice. The respective and closely connected interpretations of the term "music scene" offered by Straw and Shank each recognize and strive to articulate the spatial interactivity of music places, namely how ideas transit through, around and between physical spaces. Brisbane is a city harboring a revitalized music scene. Post-World War II, the city endured parochial state governance and systemic corruption leading to both a diminished migrant influence and an exodus of Anglophone musicians and creative workers. The city of Hobart is located in the south of Tasmania, Australia's southernmost island state. Settled as a penal colony and subject to a boom-and-bust cycle of post-World War II economics, Hobart—like Brisbane—is a city still emerging as an arts hub.
