ABSTRACT
Australia is a federation so there are several layers of government that interact with each other. The three tiers of government in Australia are the federal government, state government and local government. Since colonisation, governments have been involved in supporting the establishment of cultural facilities based on western models in different communities across the country. The role of the state and local governments in relation to arts and culture has been very important. It began earlier than the Federal Government’s, given the existence of the separate states and locales before Federation in 1901. We will also examine how the various tiers of government work together to support arts and cultural activity, ratios of funding and where funding that goes to cultural activity comes from, in terms of the different tiers of government.
