The figure: beach, verandah, backyard

This research undertakes to examine factors that contribute to make Australian national and cultural identity: shared history, narratives symbols, icons, places and memories that are united by a single political and geographical boundary. In particular, it considers the role of place on Australian national and cultural identity. This is a timely exercise since 'Australianess' is increasingly cited as a factor in federal government policy development. In order to address such a broad and complex area, the agenda has been limited to three specific locations: the beach, the verandah and the backyard. These sites have been selected first because of their prominent iconic status within the notion of 'Australianess' and, second, because of the underlying functional parallels that unite them. The present thesis contends that, unlike the function-specific sites where identity is neutralised by globalised standards of appearance, behaviour and harsh fluorescent light, the beach, the verandah and the backyard are ambiguous zones of in between that provide escape, shelter as well as spiritual sanctuary. The figures engage with the nominated locations in accordance with the significance, the meanings that they ascribe to that particular site. These meanings, however, vary greatly from person to person and from demographic to demographic, hence, the grasp of a universally binding sense of identity becomes a slippery proposition. National and cultural seity - the way we are and the way we perceive ourselves as a unified collective - is conditional to a number of factors, the most enduring and pervasive of these is the sense of place, the landscape, the way we affect it and, reciprocally, the way it affects us. National and cultural identity is never static, but remains in a state of perpetual evolution. It must be continually re-assessed in order to remain abreast of the cultural palimpsest as successive waves and generations of people from a variety of backgrounds, situations, ideas and forms of expression inscribe notions of self into their immediate environment