3 Castlegar News _ February, 1989 Australians wan Editor's note: “Australia, has won worldwide for its diverse i , from the movie Crotodile Dundee to its multinational corporations and brand names like Foster's beer, But some wonder what it is to be a “true blue” Aussie. This is part of a series by a Canadian Press correspondent on Australia and New Zealand By JIM SHE! CANBERRA (CP) Two walking thr Australian outback under a broiling sun when they spot the skeleton of @ long-dead PARD “swagmen,” or hobos, gh the afiimal by the, side of the road They say nothing for hours until one asks: “Did you see that dead horse back there’ Hours-of-silence-passThen, as they set up camp for the night, his mate answers: “That was no horse. That was a cow Next morning his friend is gone, but there's a scrawled note I'm off,” it says. “Too much argument in this camp.” It's an old joke hot Alice Springs in the vast, arid interior to thé air-conditioned bars of bustling, businesslike Sydney on told and retold from oppressively the heavily populated East Coast To outsiders, it sums up all the Australia, the island continent lonely desert.-The dry, wry humor that made Crocodile Dundee a household name around the world But tomany-of the 17 million Australians, who’ have celebration of the 200th anniversary of the arrival of white settlers, the joke is caricatures Lean, laconic men. The just ended a year-long symbolic of an image they would happily shed. Is there really a typical Australian character, the rue blue” Aussie of song and legend? We've gone through quite an identity crisis in the last few years,” says Jana Wendt, host of a popular national television program The traditional, view of Australians is quickly summed up by authpr Jeffrey Chamberlain ‘On the friendly and generous. positive side, they're honest, up-front expects to sée kangaroos hopping down Main Street and people wearing funny hats-who can't speak English It’s much the same for you Canadians who get upset at people, thinking your country's nothing but moose, mountains and Moynties:” But there's little arguing with apparent success. VISITS TRIPLE In the five years Hogan started promoting tourism to Australia, the number of foreign visitors has tripled Surveys continually show he's one of the main reasons for the boom. In-an-ideal-world, we wouldn't keep. using these stereotyp says Bob Hoffman, a senior executive at the advertising agency that popularized koala ads for Qantas, the national airline, and Hogan's tourism ads. But many of these images sell products:You know, like the Englishman who.carries an umbrella or the American who wears a cowboy hat.” Lately, old Australia’s often hoary image has been reflected in a bitter debate over non-white immigration Members of both the Labor government’ and Liberal-National Country opposition have been sacked by their leaders for suggesting something like a return to "White Australia” immigration policies of decades ago. Back then, black and Asian severely restricted REFUGEES COME The debate has been fuelled by the arrival of a immigration was large number of Vietnamese refugees, who now far outnumber Australia’s mative Aborigines. The government 6kPrime Minister Robert Hawke rejected’ the advice of its own advisory committee, which suggested a gradual reduction of Indo-Chinese immigrants, but promised {0 continue to recently monitor the The focus on ste also obscured the “complex situation ‘otyped images fromthe past has phenomenal rise of Australian businessmen on the. world scene in the last decade. A senior London businessman recently described the Australian invasion of Britain this way The. morning paper is published by Rupert Murdoch. Drink a beer at lunch-time and it's a Foster's. Seoctsome-ttocuments-by widely known around the world, it is losing its . once-tight grip on “true blue" Aussies. SUCCESS COSTS “We don't like it too much when others cotton on to our private stock,” said Jake Burns, the manager, bartender and floor-sweeper at the aptly named Jake's Place in Brisbang? He spoke late one night over an incredible din apparently occasioned for no other reason than it was a Saturday night John Elliott, the. brewer Who makes Foster's and who is often touted as a potential leader of the Spposition Liberal-National Country alliance, says that's just part of the Australian character. “We knock the successful a bit,” -he says. Author Rodney Hall agrees and points to the continuing-poputarity of the song Waltzing Matilda, which he says describes the outback life of a thief and eventual suicide “It’s absolutely central to our existence,” says Hall. “Every child knows it by the time he’s three or The reason, he speculates, is that the song's lyrics aracteristics woven through the Australian owner, appeal to t to shed image disrespect for authority and grandiose gestures; and great sympathy for the underdog, someone who gets back up off the carpet after life's hard knocks and “gets on with it.” Warren Fay, a specialist in Australian. folk music, says there's “a lot of heartbreak in Australian music, (deriving) from the sense of trying to survive in a harsh and hostile environment. “Many. of the songs hav hero who hitches up his bra es on down the road and starts again,” But Darrell P 40-year-old jackeroo (cowboy) who's given up his beloved bushlands for 18 months to try to make it as a country-music singer, thinks an era is passing in the outback. “The Dinky Die bushmen are dying out,” hé says witha sigh in an open-air bar on the tourist-infested Northeast Coast where he enter nature: a common theme, or a s, ‘shrugs his shoulc the real old fellows tains these days. “What is'a true blue Australian these days?” he ‘asks rhetorically, citing the words of an extremely popular ballad he'd just been singing. Aborigines battling Editor's note: The plight of Australia’s native people has been illuminated by a royal commission's inquiry into the startling number of Aborigines who die. in prison; many by suicide. The clash between European and Aboriginal cultures is partly to blame, a conflict that began when whites first arrived on the continent 200 years ago. By‘JIM SHEPPARD BRISBANE, AUSTRALIA (CP) The list stretched over two full pages of a local néwspaper and was cloquent in its simplicity once belonged to us."’ Like their counterparts in Canada 200,000 Aborigines are battling these days to regain not only the land that once was theirs but also to preserve their languages and traditional way of life Australia’s The sniall, dark, usually. curly-haired Australian natives — a racial group related only to small tribes in India, Sri Lanka and Malaysia — are thought to have arrived in the island continent about 40,000 yearsago. But they've had little of the success achieved recently by some Canadian native who have négotiated large land-claims settlements with the federal government The contrast stems from a basic difference in the British approach to the land question when they first arrived in the two countries. In Canada, the British negotiated land-surrender treaties which cap still be enforced. And where there ” ' COMMUNITY NEWS WATCH THOSE FINGERS exhibit at the Robson elementary school's Grade 3/4 class recent prints. Centre. ly visited the popular Zoo Zone made zoo animal masks and animal Students pass Royal Conservatory exams cidade Castlegar News 87 Moore speaks to F B D B Rota ria ns A representative of the Bank will be in Castlegar on February 15, 1989 to discuss your Business Financial and Management By JOHN CHARTERS rept Why not call us today at 426-7241 to arrange an appoin- was surprised to realize how well connected we are — over 1,000 people. directly — and many more indirectly." Mayor Audrey Moore, speaking last Tuesday to a near capaciy audience of Castlegar Rotarians and Rotary Anns, was addressing the topic of networking and interaction between city council and its staff and the greater community of Castlegar After being introduced by city ad ministrator Dave Gairns, who listed the mayor's considerable service in of- fice and wide range of directorships and offices in many and varied areas, Moore said that both she and her staff had not realized the extent of commit- ment involved by the city governmen- tand staff Using a well-designed organizational chart, she traced the city’s relationships to federal, provin. cial and regional governments and the various services “involved. She then went on to comment on some of the 40 other formal and informal liason and interattion groups with which the city is involved. She gave strong praise to the city staff effort and dedication with relation toall of these groups. In the question period that followed, Moore stated that the city had been first to apply in the down. town revitalization program but had received little support from the downtown area. She indicated that while the city should encourage 1 be 4 hould. Lo Banque offre ses se dons les wx langues officelles BACKING INDEPENDENT BUSINESS Federal Busin Banque federale t Bank - de devel. Canadit To assist with snow r 9 owners and operators are requested not to park on City streets or parking lots during heavy snowfalls. Parents are also requested not to allow their children to play on snowbanks on City streets. Kootenay Office Outfitters Ltd 12-9th Avenue South Cranbrook, B.C. VIC 2L8 Cranbrook ...426-2241 © Castlegar .... 365-7454 Troil 368-3 Nelson 354-3855 * 50 copies per minute * advanced document féeding with automatic duplexing standard on the * zoom reduction and enlargement from 50% to 200% ith Bobe brash isa AESSTIES SUCCEED —— The traditional image has been fed by the confident cesses of Crocodile Dundee, the brief capture of ~ y's America’s Cup, the worldwide expansion of industry's stralian business and its booming wine hallenge to the best of Europe But Australians relationship with the stereotype Paul Hogan His Crocodile Dundee character and his beer and basically. have a__ love-hate epitomized by actor jourism commercials: provoke despair among educated stralians, who are convinced he's perpetuating the omespun, inward-obsessed outback mythology at the xpense of the modern outward-looking Australia of its big, mainly East Coast cities I shudder every time I see him,” confesses Ken Farnham, relations ralian Bicenten Author the 200th anniversary celebrations Sometimes T think every tourist who comes here manager for the which co-ordinated ——__ your door. Switeton the fv amd the ——