Abstract

With the commencement of white settlement in Australia, the practice of centuries-old traditions of cultural heritage, brought to the new land, was severely challenged when those settlers, who were poorly equipped to eke out a bare existence, were faced with the realities of survival in “the bush”. What place then for “the arts”? This paper considers how the artistic expression of traditional and popular culture might have been affected by the circumstances of hardship and isolation in the white settlement of early Australia.