Europeans & the Australian Environment

The role of pioneers in Australian national mythology has changed over time, and still is very much a part of our national historical narrative. The Pioneer idea helps Australia to distract from its convict past, and allows the national conscious to focus on a free people, exploring and taming the wild Australian land. From a modern perspective, the history of Australia has been shaped by many people from many nations. While Australia was founded as a British nation, many Irish, Scottish and Chinease people helped shape the nation during the gold rush, post World War 2 there was a large amount of non British migration form Europe, post the Vietnam War a large asian immigration occurred, and more recently in the 1990’s and 2000’s a large African and Middle Eastern immigration has occurred. Through this prism, modern historians have almost portrayed these immigrants as pioneers of their own, in coming so far from their homeland, and leaving their mark on Australian culture.

The early pioneers however, have helped shape the concept of the Australian person more than any other. The mythological image of an early pioneer is that of a rugged, self sustaining, innovative, hardened, a man of few words who has created much from nothing. The pioneer managed to tame the harsh wilderness and make for himself a respectable and prosperous life, an industrious and self made man.

The pioneer past is divorced from convict past of Australia also. The early pioneers in Australia made the decision to risk themselves as free people, to exploring the wild new land. While many in the cities continued the traditions of Britain and looked towards the creation of a ‘Better Britain’, the pioneers symbolise the rejection of the traditional British way of life and the cultural and social barriers that came with it. The pioneer began to symbolise the Australian person as distinct from a British person.

Source: Gare & Ritter, Making Australian History (Perspectives on the past since 1788), CENGAGE Learning, 1st Edition

This is a digital reproduction of Frederick McCubbin's  The Pioneer, 1904.

It is a wonderful representation of the pioneer life during the early period of Australian settlement.

It shows three stages of a Pioneers life;

The Beginning- A scene of a woman contemplating the complete remoteness and isolation that now engulfs her life.

The Middle- The man, wife and child, who have made a home for themselves in the remoteness of the Australian outback.

The End- A man paying homage to possibly his parents or friends, that now lie on the land they cultivated, while the development of a city in the background shows how many have followed The Pioneer to create a new life.

(http://www.ngv.vic.gov.au/exilesandemigrants/ed_newland_05.html)