ABSTRACT
This chapter explores the changing meanings and locations of the 'frontier' within broader historical and cultural contexts. From transcontinental cyclists and motorists, to those who followed the 'hippie trail' across Asia and the Middle East to Europe in the 1960s and 1970s, to the phenomenon of Kokoda Track trekking, overland travellers have sought increasingly challenging adventures on and off the road, in Australia and beyond. The creation of Australia's frontier legends coincided with major revolutions in overland transport in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries: the bicycle and the motor car. Epic transcontinental journeys captured the nation's imagination. The First World War was a defining period in the development of motor-vehicle technology and the formation of the Australian national identity. During the war, motor vehicles convincingly proved their worth for long-distance transport. From the 1920s onwards, Australian Motorist, the first national motoring journal, founded in 1908, began to promote long-distance outback motoring to a wider audience.
