ABSTRACT
This chapter explores participation, particularly of local authorities, in Country Week (CW), focusing on the reasons they attend, their expectations and strategies for success, and the organisation of the Expos. While some councils have other promotional activities, for many the annual Expo is the main event in which they participate. The idea of CW began in the northern tablelands of NSW, a stronghold of the National Party and a region dominated by upland grazing. CW sought to portray and offer a positive countryside different from the perceptions that some urban residents were presumed to have, seemingly centred on what Peter Bailey habitually described as 'drought and dead sheep in the dam'. The recurrent dichotomy between positive regional experiences and problematic city life raises questions about rural identity, the understanding of socio-economic status in rural migration, and especially at what scale urban life may not be problematic but positive.
