TheArts in Australia refers to the visual arts, literature,performing arts and music in the area of, on the subject of, or by the people of theCommonwealth of Australia and its precedingIndigenous and colonial societies.Indigenous Australian art,music and story telling attaches to a 40–60,000-year heritage and continues to affect the broader arts andculture of Australia. During its earlywestern history, Australia was a collection of British colonies, therefore, itsliterary,visual andtheatrical traditions began with strong links to the broader traditions ofEnglish andIrish literature,British art andEnglish andCeltic music. However, the works of Australian artists – including Indigenous as well asAnglo-Celtic andmulticultural migrant Australians – has, since 1788, introduced the character of a new continent to the global arts scene – exploring such themes asAboriginality, Australian landscape, migrant and national identity, distance from other Western nations and proximity to Asia, the complexities of urban living and the "beauty and the terror" of life in theAustralian bush.
Notable Australian writers have included the Nobel laureatePatrick White, the novelistsColleen McCullough andHenry Handel Richardson and the bush poetsHenry Lawson andBanjo Paterson. Leading Australian performing artists have includedRobert Helpmann of theAustralian Ballet,Joan Sutherland ofOpera Australia and the humouristBarry Humphries. Prominent Australian musical artists have included theAustralian country music singerSlim Dusty, rising starCody Simpson, folk-rockerPaul Kelly, "pop princess"Kylie Minogue androck n roll bands theBee Gees,AC/DC,INXS andPowderfinger. Quintessentially Australian art styles include theHeidelberg School theHermannsburg School and theWestern Desert Art Movement.
Australian cinema has a long tradition with a body of work producing popular classics such asCrocodile Dundee andThe Man From Snowy River, andarthouse successes such asPicnic at Hanging Rock andTen Canoes. Prominent Australian trained filmed artists includeErrol Flynn,Mel Gibson,Nicole Kidman,Russell Crowe andCate Blanchett.
Notable institutions for the arts include theUNESCO listedSydney Opera House, theNational Gallery of Victoria, theNational Gallery of Australia inCanberra and theNational Institute of Dramatic Art in Sydney.
The arts in Australia, including the fields ofcinema,music,visual arts,theatre,dance and crafts often reflect general trends in Western arts. However, the arts as practiced byindigenous Australians represent a unique Australian cultural tradition, and Australia's landscape and history have contributed to some unique variations in the styles inherited by Australia's various migrant communities.[1][2][3]
At the close of the 19th century, the painters of theHeidelberg School began to capture the unique colours of theAustralian bush, famed writersHenry Lawson andBanjo Paterson presented conflicting views of the harshness and romance of life in Australia, and performing artists like opera singer DameNellie Melba made a mark internationally in classical European culture. During the 20th century, writers and performers likeC J Dennis,Barry Humphries andPaul Hogan both mocked and celebrated Australian cultural stereotypes, while shifting demographics saw a diversification of artistic output, with writers like feministGermaine Greer challenging traditional cultural norms.
Australia's capital cities each support traditional "high culture" institutions in the form of major art galleries, ballet troupes, theatres, symphony orchestras, opera houses and dance companies. Leading Australian performers in these fields have included the opera DamesNellie Melba andJoan Sutherland, dancersEdouard Borovansky andSir Robert Helpmann, and choreographer/dancers such asGraeme Murphy andMeryl Tankard.Opera Australia is based in Sydney at the world-renownedSydney Opera House.[4] TheAustralian Ballet,Melbourne andSydney symphony orchestras are also well regarded cultural institutions.
Organisations such as theSydney Theatre Company andNational Institute of Dramatic Art have fostered students of theatre, film, and television several of whom have continued to international success, with actors likeCate Blanchett andGeoffrey Rush having been associated with both institutions.
Independent culture thrives in all capital cities and exists in most large regional towns. The independent arts ofmusic,film,art andstreet art are the most extensive.Melbourne's independent music scene, is one of the largest in the world, whilst another can be found in the multitude of international street artists visiting Melbourne and, to a lesser extent, other major cities, to work for a period of time. As of February 2015, Arts and recreation services was the strongest industry in Australia by total number of employed persons growing by 20.59% since the same time in 2013.[5]
The visual arts have a long history in Australia, dating back around 30,000 years, and examples of ancient Aboriginalrock art can be found throughout the continent, notably in national parks such as theUNESCO-listed sites atUluru andKakadu National Park in theNorthern Territory, and also within protected parks in urban areas such asKu-ring-gai Chase National Park inSydney.[6] In the mid-twentieth century, the landscape paintings ofAlbert Namatjira were popular and received national and international acclaim.[7] Since the 1970s,contemporary Indigenous Australian artists have used acrylic paints in styles such as that of theWestern Desert Art Movement, which leading criticRobert Hughes saw as "the last great art movement of the 20th century".[8] Art is important both culturally and economically to Indigenous society; art criticSasha Grishin concluded that central Australian Indigenous communities have "the highest per capita concentrations of artists anywhere in the world".[9] Contemporary artists whose work has been exhibited internationally such as at theVenice Biennale, includeRover Thomas andEmily Kngwarreye, while designs were commissioned from several nationally recognised artists in 2006 for the newMusée du quai Branly buildings. The artists includedPaddy Bedford,John Mawurndjul,Ningura Napurrula,Lena Nyadbi,Michael Riley,Judy Watson,Tommy Watson andGulumbu Yunupingu.[10][11]
Following the arrival of permanent European settlement in Australia in 1788, the story of early Australian painting has been described[by whom?] as requiring of artists a shift from a "European sense of light" to an "Australian sense of light". The origins of distinctly Australian painting is often associated with theHeidelberg School of the 1880s–1890s. Artists such asArthur Streeton,Frederick McCubbin andTom Roberts applied themselves to recreating in their art a truer sense of light and colour as seen in the Australian landscape. Like the European Impressionists, they painted in the open air. These artists found inspiration in the unique light and colour which characterises theAustralian bush.
Among the first Australian artists to gain a reputation overseas was the impressionistJohn Russell during the 1880s. Another notable expatriate artist of the era wasRupert Bunny, a painter of landscape, allegory and sensual and intimate portraits.Ernst William Christmas also made a name internationally.
Among the principal Australian artists of the 20th century are thesurrealistsSidney Nolan,Arthur Boyd andRussell Drysdale, theavant-gardeBrett Whiteley, the painter/sculptorsWilliam Dobell andNorman Lindsay, the landscapistsEmily Kame Kngwarreye,Albert Namatjira andLloyd Rees, andmodernist photographerMax Dupain. Each has helped to define the unique character of the visual arts in Australia.[1]
Modernism arrived in Australia early in the 20th century. Among the earliest exponents wereGrace Cossington Smith andMargaret Preston. HumoristBarry Humphries has been a provocative exponent ofdadaism in Australia.[12]
Popular with the general community have beenKen Done, best known for his design work,Pro Hart andRolf Harris, a British/Australian living in the UK who is popular as a musician, composer, painter and television host.Ricky Swallow,Patricia Piccinini,Susan Norrie,Callum Morton,Rover Thomas andEmily Kame Kngwarreye have all represented Australians at theVenice Biennale using the traditional mediums of sculpture, photography and painting while instilling them with a renewed vigour. A new generation of Aboriginal artists, while not rejecting the culture of the past, endeavour to move the artistic dialogue forward, includingGordon Bennett,Rosella Namok,Richard Bell andJulie Dowling.
In recent years the art market has been democratised and art is judged on its merits rather than snobbery. A cohort of male artists aged under fifty (Dane Lovett,Adam Cullen,Ben Quilty,Anthony Bennett,Simon Cuthbert,Rhys Lee, Ben Frost andAlasdair McIntyre) have an expressive style and use humour in their work.
In additionstreet art is also a prominent feature in major cities such asMelbourne andSydney. Though there is some debate over the legality, some councils have expressed greater recognition of the urban art movement.
Australia has a number of notable museums and galleries, including theNational Gallery of Victoria inMelbourne, theNational Gallery of Australia,National Portrait Gallery of Australia andNational Museum of Australia in Canberra, and theArt Gallery of New South Wales in Sydney.
Australia has a long history of film production. Australia's first dedicated film studio, theLimelight Department, was created byThe Salvation Army in Melbourne in 1898, and is believed to have been the world's first.[13] The world's first feature-length film was the Australian productionThe Story of the Kelly Gang of 1906.[14] After such early successes, Australian cinema suffered from the rise ofHollywood.
In 1933,In the Wake of the Bounty was directed byCharles Chauvel, who cast Tasmanian-bornErrol Flynn as the leading actor.[15] Flynn went on to a celebrated career in Hollywood. Chauvel directed a number of successful Australian films, the last being 1955'sJedda, which was notable for being the first Australian film to be shot in colour, and the first to feature Aboriginal actors in lead roles and to be entered at the Cannes Film Festival.[16] It was not until 2006 andRolf de Heer'sTen Canoes that a major feature-length drama was shot in an indigenous language.
The first Australian Oscar was won by 1942'sKokoda Front Line!, directed byKen G. Hall.[17]
Television broadcasting began in Australia in 1956. The majority of locally produced content was broadcast live-to-air, with little local programming from these first few years of Australian TV broadcasting recorded. Notable early arts programs wereBandstand, hosted by Brian Henderson;Six O'Clock Rock, hosted by Johnny O'Keefe and the first Australian serial drama,Autumn Affair. A TV seriesThe Adventures of Long John Silver was made in Sydney for the American and British market; it was shown on the ABC in 1958.
During the late 1960s and 1970s an influx of government funding saw the development of a new generation of filmmakers telling distinctively Australian stories, including directorsPeter Weir,George Miller andBruce Beresford. Films such asPicnic at Hanging Rock (1975) andSunday Too Far Away (1975) had an immediate international impact. The 1980s is often regarded[by whom?] as a golden age of Australian cinema, with multiple successful films, from the historical drama ofGallipoli (1981) to the dark science fiction of theMad Max sequels (1981–85), the romantic adventure ofThe Man From Snowy River (1982) or the comedy ofCrocodile Dundee (1986).[18]
In 1982, the first Australian game development studios to achieve global success, Melbourne House (nowKrome Studios Melbourne) published a text adventure adaption of The Hobbit for the ZX Spectrum. Other early game development studios in Australia includeStrategic Studies Group, who developedReach for the Stars in 1983, and Micro Forté, founded in 1985.
A major theme of Australian cinema has been survival in the harsh Australian landscape. A number of thrillers and horror films dubbed "outback gothic" have been created, includingWake in Fright,Walkabout (1971),The Cars That Ate Paris (1974) andPicnic at Hanging Rock (1975),Razorback (1984) andShame (1988) in the 1980s, andJapanese Story (2003),The Proposition (2005) and the world-renownedWolf Creek (2006) in the 21st century. These films depict the Australian outback and its wilderness and creatures as deadly, and its people as outcasts and psychopaths disconnected to modern urban Australia. These are combined with futuristic post-apocalyptic themes in theMad Max series.
The 1990s saw a run of successful comedies such asStrictly Ballroom (1992),Muriel's Wedding (1994) andThe Castle (1996), which helped launch the careers ofToni Collette,P. J. Hogan,Eric Bana andBaz Luhrmann. This group was joined in Hollywood by actors includingRussell Crowe,Cate Blanchett andHeath Ledger who also rose to international prominence.
The domestic film industry continues to produce a reasonable[quantify] number of films each year. The industry is also supported by US producers who produce in Australia following the decision by Fox headRupert Murdoch to utilise new studios in Melbourne and Sydney where filming could be completed well below US costs. Notable productions includeThe Matrix,Star Wars episodesII andIII, andAustralia starringNicole Kidman andHugh Jackman.
TheAustralian Centre for the Moving Image in Melbourne is Australia's national museum of film,video games, digital culture and art. During the 2015–16 financial year, 1.45 million people visited ACMI, making it the most visited moving image museum in the world.
Australian writers who have obtained international renown include theNobel winning authorPatrick White, as well as authorsPeter Carey,Thomas Keneally,Colleen McCullough,Nevil Shute andMorris West. Notable contemporary expatriate authors include the feministGermaine Greer, art historianRobert Hughes and humoristsBarry Humphries andClive James.[19]
Among the important authors of classic Australian works are the poetsHenry Lawson,Banjo Paterson,C J Dennis andDorothea McKellar. Dennis wrote in the Australian vernacular, while McKellar wrote the iconic patriotic poemMy Country. At one point, Lawson and Paterson contributed a series of verses toThe Bulletin magazine in which they engaged in a literary debate about the nature of life in Australia. Lawson said Paterson was a romantic and Paterson said Lawson was full of doom and gloom.[20] Lawson is widely regarded as one of Australia's greatest writers of short stories, while Paterson's poemsThe Man From Snowy River andClancy of the Overflow remain amongst the most popular Australian bush poems. Significant political poets of the 20th century included DameMary Gilmore andJudith Wright. Among the best known contemporary poets areLes Murray andBruce Dawe.
Novelists of classic Australian works includeMarcus Clarke (For the Term of His Natural Life),Henry Handel Richardson (The Fortunes of Richard Mahony),Joseph Furphy (Such Is Life),Miles Franklin (My Brilliant Career) andRuth Park (The Harp in the South). In terms of children's literature,Norman Lindsay (The Magic Pudding) andMay Gibbs (Snugglepot and Cuddlepie) are among the Australian classics, while eminent Australian playwrights have includedSteele Rudd,David Williamson,Alan Seymour andNick Enright.
Although historically only a small proportion of Australia's population have lived outside the major cities, a number of Australia's most distinctive stories and legends originate in theoutback, in thedrovers and squatters and people of the barren, dusty plains.[21]
Contemporary works dealing with the migrant experience includeMelina Marchetta'sLooking for Alibrandi andAnh Do's memoirThe Happiest Refugee, which won the Indie Book of the Year Award for 2011 and tells the story of his experience as a Vietnamese refugee travelling to and growing up in Australia.[22]
David Unaipon is known as the first indigenous author.Oodgeroo Noonuccal was the firstAboriginal Australian to publish a book of verse.[23] A significant contemporary account of the experiences of Indigenous Australia can be found inSally Morgan'sMy Place.
Charles Bean (The Story of Anzac: From the Outbreak of War to the End of the First Phase of the Gallipoli Campaign 4 May 1915, 1921)Geoffrey Blainey (The Tyranny of Distance, 1966),Robert Hughes (The Fatal Shore, 1987),Manning Clark(A History of Australia, 1962–87), andMarcia Langton (First Australians, 2008) are authors of important Australian histories.
TraditionalAboriginal Australian dance is closely associated with song and designed to make present the reality of theDreamtime. In some instances, the dances imitate the actions of a particular animal in the process of telling a story. Traditional ritual performances define roles, responsibilities and country, giving an understanding of people's relationship with social, geographical and environmental forces. Performances may be associated with specific sacred places. Body decoration and specific gestures related to kin and other relationships (such as to Dreamtime beings with which individuals and groups). For a number of Aboriginal Australian groups, their dances are secret and or sacred, gender could also be an important factor in some ceremonies with men and women having separate ceremonial traditions.[24]
Acorroboree, a generic word for a meeting of Australian Aboriginal peoples often including dance as well as elements of sacred ceremony and/or celebration, has been incorporated into the English language and used to explain a practice that is different from ceremony and more widely inclusive than theatre or opera.[25]
In the latter part of the 20th century the influence ofIndigenous Australian dance traditions has been seen with the development ofconcert dance, particularly incontemporary dance with theNational Aboriginal Islander Skills Development Association providing training to Indigenous Australians in dance, and theBangarra Dance Theatre.
The Australian Ballet is the foremostclassical ballet company in Australia. It was founded by the English ballerina DamePeggy van Praagh in 1962 and is today recognised as one of the world's major international ballet companies. It is based in Melbourne and performs works from the classical repertoire as well as contemporary works by major Australian and international choreographers. As of 2010, it was presenting approximately 200 performances in cities and regional areas around Australia each year as well as international tours. Regular venues include: theArts Centre Melbourne,Sydney Opera House,Sydney Theatre,Adelaide Festival Centre andQueensland Performing Arts Centre.[26][27]Robert Helpmann is among Australia's best known ballet dancers.
Bush dance has developed in Australia as a form of traditional dance, drawing from English, Irish, Scottish and other European dance. Favourite dances in the community include such as the IrishCéilidh "Pride of Erin" and thequadrille "The Lancers". Locally originated dances include the "Waves of Bondi", theMelbourne Shuffle andNew Vogue.
Multiple immigrant communities continue their own dance traditions on a professional or amateur basis. Traditional dances from a large number of ethnic backgrounds are danced in Australia, helped by the presence of enthusiastic immigrants and their Australian-born families. It is quite common to see dances from the Baltic region, as well asScottish,Irish,Indian,Indonesian orAfrican dance being taught at community centres and dance schools in Australia.
Baz Luhrmann's popular 1992 filmStrictly Ballroom, starringPaul Mercurio contributed to an increased interest in dance competition in Australia, and a number of popular dance shows includingSo You Think You Can Dance have featured on television in recent years.
Aboriginal song is an integral part of Aboriginal culture. The most famous feature of their music is thedidgeridoo. This wooden instrument, used amongst the Aboriginal tribes of northern Australia, makes a distinctive droning sound and its use has been adopted by a wide variety of non-Aboriginal performers.
Aboriginal musicians have turned their hand to Western popular musical forms, often to considerable commercial success. Pioneers includedLionel Rose, andJimmy Little, while notable contemporary examples includeArchie Roach, theWarumpi Band,NoKTuRNL andYothu Yindi.Geoffrey Gurrumul Yunupingu (formerly of Yothu Yindi) has attained international success singing contemporary music in English and in the language of theYolngu.Christine Anu is a successfulTorres Strait Islander singer.
Australian country music has been popular among indigenous communities, with performers includingTroy Cassar-Daley rising to national prominence.
Amongst young Australian aborigines,African-American and Aboriginalhip hop music and clothing is popular.[28] Aboriginal boxing champion and former professionalrugby league footballerAnthony Mundine identified US rapperTupac Shakur as a personal inspiration, after Mundine's release of his 2007 single,Platinum Ryder.[29]
The Deadlys are an annual celebration of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander achievement in music, sport, entertainment and community.
The earlyAnglo-Celtic immigrants of the 18th and 19th centuries introduced folk ballad traditions which were adapted to Australian themes: "Bound for Botany Bay" tells of the voyage of British convicts to Sydney, "The Wild Colonial Boy" evokes the spirit of thebushrangers, and "Click Go the Shears" speaks of the life of Australian shearers. The lyrics of Australia's best-known folk song, "Waltzing Matilda", were written by the bush poetBanjo Paterson in 1895.[30] Adopted by Australian soldiers during World War I, this song remains popular and is often sung at sporting events, including the closure of theSydney Olympics in 2000, byAustralian country music singerSlim Dusty.[31]
Other well-known singers of Australian folk music includeRolf Harris (who wrote "Tie Me Kangaroo Down Sport"),John Williamson, andEric Bogle whose 1972 song "And the Band Played Waltzing Matilda" is a sorrowful lament to theGallipoli Campaign.Bush dance is a traditional style of dance from Australia with strong Celtic roots, and influencedcountry music. It is generally accompanied by such instruments as thefiddle,accordion,concertina andpercussion instruments.[32] A well-known Bush band isThe Bushwackers.[33]
Thenational anthem of Australia is "Advance Australia Fair":
Unofficial pop music anthems of Australia includePeter Allen's "I Still Call Australia Home" andMen at Work's "Down Under".
The earliest Western musical influences in Australia can be traced back to two distinct sources: the first free settlers who brought with them the European classical music tradition, and the large body of convicts and sailors, who brought the traditional folk music of England, Ireland, Scotland and Wales. The practicalities of building a colony mean that there is little music extant from this early period although there are samples of music originating fromHobart and Sydney that date back to the early 19th century.[34]
Nellie Melba (1861–1931) travelled to Europe in 1886 to commence her international career as an opera singer. She became among the best known Australians of the period and participated in early gramophone recording and radio broadcasting.[35]
The establishment of choral societies (c. 1850) and symphony orchestras (c. 1890) led to increased compositional activity, although a number of Australian classical composers attempted to work entirely within European models. A lot of works leading up to the first part of the 20th century were heavily influenced by the folk music of other countries (Percy Grainger'sCountry Gardens of 1918 being a good example of this) and a conservative British orchestral tradition.[34]
In the war and post-war eras, as pressure built to assert a national identity in the face of the looming superpower of the United States and the "motherland" Britain, composers looked to their surroundings for inspiration. John Antill[36] andPeter Sculthorpe began to incorporate elements of Aboriginal music, andRichard Meale drew influence fromsouth-east Asia (notably using the harmonic properties of theBalineseGamelan, as had Percy Grainger in an earlier generation).[34]
By the beginning of the 1960s, Australian classical music erupted with influences, with composers incorporating disparate elements into their work, ranging from Aboriginal and south-east Asian music and instruments, to Americanjazz andblues, to the belated discovery of European atonality and theavant-garde. Composers likeDon Banks,Don Kay,Malcolm Williamson andColin Brumby epitomise this period.[34] In recent times composers includingLiza Lim,Carl Vine,Georges Lentz,Matthew Hindson,Yitzhak Yedid,Nigel Westlake,Ross Edwards,Graeme Koehne,Elena Kats-Chernin,Richard Mills,Stuart Greenbaum andBrett Dean have embodied the pinnacle of establishedAustralian composers.
Well-known Australian classical performers include: sopranosDame Joan Sutherland, DameJoan Hammond,Joan Carden,Yvonne Kenny,Sara Macliver andEmma Matthews; pianistsRoger Woodward,Eileen Joyce,Michael Kieran Harvey,Geoffrey Tozer,Geoffrey Douglas Madge,Leslie Howard andIan Munro; guitaristsJohn Williams andSlava Grigoryan; horn playerBarry Tuckwell; oboistDiana Doherty; violinistsRichard Tognetti andElizabeth Wallfisch; cellistsJohn Addison andDavid Pereira; organistChristopher Wrench; orchestras like theSydney Symphony Orchestra, theMelbourne Symphony Orchestra, theAustralian Chamber Orchestra and theAustralian Brandenburg Orchestra; and conductors SirBernard Heinze, SirCharles Mackerras,Richard Bonynge,Simone Young andGeoffrey Simon. Indigenous performers likedidgeridoo playerWilliam Barton and immigrant musicians like Egyptian-bornoud virtuosoJoseph Tawadros have stimulated interest in their own music traditions and have also collaborated with other musicians and ensembles both in Australia and internationally.
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Australia has produced a large variety of popular music from the internationally renowned work of theBee Gees,AC/DC,INXS,Nick Cave,Cody Simpson orKylie Minogue to the popular local content ofJohn Farnham orPaul Kelly.[37]
Among the brightest stars of early Australianrock and roll wasJohnny O'Keefe, who formed a band in 1956; his hitWild One made him the first Australian rock'n'roller to reach the national charts.[38] While US and British content dominated airwaves and record sales into the 1960s, local successes began to emerge – notablyThe Easybeats and the folk-pop groupThe Seekers had significant local success and some international recognition, while the bands theBee Gees andAC/DC had their first hits in Australia before going on to international success.
The arrival of the 1961 underground movement into the mainstream in the early 1970s changed Australian music permanently.Skyhooks were far from the first people to write songs in Australia by Australians about Australia, but they were the first ones to make good money doing it. The two best-selling Australian albums made up to that time put Australian music on the map. Within a few years, the novelty had worn off and it became commonplace to hear distinctively Australian lyrics and sounds side-by-side with imports.[citation needed]
During the 1970s, 1980s and 1990s Australian performers continued to do well on the local and international music scenes, for exampleCold Chisel,INXS,Men at Work andKylie Minogue,Natalie Imbruglia,Savage Garden andSilverchair. In the early 21st century, bands such asJet,Wolfmother,Eskimo Joe,Grinspoon,The Vines,The Living End,Pendulum,Delta Goodrem and others were enjoying success internationally.
Domestically,John Farnham has remained one of Australia's best-known performers, with a career spanning over 40 years.[39] Singer-songwriterPaul Kelly whose music style straddles folk, rock, and country has been described[by whom?] as thepoet laureate of Australian music.[40]
The national expansion ofABC youth radio stationTriple J during the 1990s has increased the profile and availability of home-grown talent to listeners nationwide. Since the mid-1990s a string of successful alternative Australian acts have emerged; artists to achieve both underground (critical) and mainstream (commercial) success includeYou Am I,Grinspoon,Powderfinger andJet.
Australia has a long tradition ofcountry music, which has developed a style quite distinct from its US counterpart, influenced by Celtic folk ballads and the traditions of Australian bush balladeers likeHenry Lawson andBanjo Paterson. Pioneers of popular country music in Australia includedTex Morton in the 1930s andSmoky Dawson from the 1940s onward.
Slim Dusty (1927–2003) was known as theKing of Australian Country Music. His successful career spanned almost six decades and his 1957 hit "A Pub With No Beer" was the biggest-selling record by an Australian to that time, the first Australian single to gogold, and the first and only 78 rpm record to be awarded a gold disc.[41] Dusty recorded and released his one-hundredth album in the year 2000 and was given the honour of singingWaltzing Matilda in the closing ceremony of theSydney 2000 Olympic Games. Dusty's wifeJoy McKean penned several of his most popular songs.
Other popular performers of Australian country music include:John Williamson (who wrote the iconic song "True Blue"),Lee Kernaghan,Kasey Chambers andSara Storer. In the United States, Australian country music stars includingOlivia Newton-John andKeith Urban have attained great success.
Country music has also been a particularly popular form of musical expression among the AustralianAboriginal andTorres Strait Islander peoples.Troy Cassar-Daley is among Australia's successful indigenous performers.
TheTamworth Country Music Festival is an annual country music festival held inTamworth, New South Wales. It celebrates the culture and heritage ofAustralian country music. During the festival theCountry Music Association of Australia holds theCountry Music Awards of Australia ceremony awarding theGolden Guitar trophies.
The ceremonial dances ofindigenous Australians which recount the stories of theDreamtime, comprise theatrical aspects and have been performed since time immemorial during the 40–60,000-year Aboriginal occupation of Australia.[42] European traditions came to Australia with theFirst Fleet in 1788, with the first production being performed in 1789 by convicts.[43] Two centuries later, the extraordinary circumstances of the foundations of Australian theatre were recounted inOur Country's Good byTimberlake Wertenbaker: the participants were prisoners watched by sadistic guards and the leading lady was under threat of the death penalty.[43]
TheTheatre Royal, Hobart, opened in 1837 and it remains the oldest theatre in Australia.[44] TheAustralian gold rushes beginning in the 1850s provided funds for the construction of grand theatres in the Victorian style. A theatre was built on the present site of Melbourne'sPrincess Theatre in 1854. The present building now hosts major international productions as well as live performance events such as theMelbourne International Comedy Festival.[45]
TheMelbourne Athenaeum was built during this period and later became Australia's first cinema, screeningThe Story of the Kelly Gang, the world's first feature film in 1906.Mark Twain,Nellie Melba,Laurence Olivier andBarry Humphries have all performed on this historic stage.[46] TheQueen's Theatre, Adelaide opened withShakespeare in 1841 and is today the oldest theatre on the mainland.[47]
After Federation in 1901, theatre productions evidenced the new sense of national identity.On Our Selection (1912) bySteele Rudd, told of the adventures of a pioneer farming family and became immensely popular. Sydney's grandCapitol Theatre opened in 1928 and after restoration remains one of the nation's finest auditoriums.[48]
In 1955,Summer of the Seventeenth Doll byRay Lawler portrayed resolutely Australian characters and went on to international acclaim. That same year, young Melbourne artistBarry Humphries performed asEdna Everage for the first time atMelbourne University's Union Theatre. Humphries left for London in his early 20s and enjoyed success on stage, including inLionel Bart's musical,Oliver!. His satirical stage creations – notably Dame Edna and laterLes Patterson –– became Australian cultural icons. Humphries also achieved success in the US with tours onBroadway and television appearances and has been honoured in Australia and Britain.[49]
TheNational Institute of Dramatic Art was created in Sydney in 1958. This institute has since produced a list of famous alumni includingCate Blanchett,Mel Gibson andBaz Luhrmann.[50]
Construction of theAdelaide Festival Centre began in 1970 and South Australia's SirRobert Helpmann became director of the Adelaide Festival of Arts.[51][52] The new wave[clarification needed] of Australian theatre debuted in the 1970s. TheBelvoir St Theatre presented works byNick Enright andDavid Williamson. In 1973, theSydney Opera House, which had been based on a design byJørn Utzon, was officially opened.[53]Opera Australia made its home in the building and its reputation was enhanced by the presence of the divaJoan Sutherland.
TheSydney Theatre Company was founded 1978 becoming one of Australia's foremost theatre companies.[54] TheBell Shakespeare Company was created in 1990. A period of success for Australian musical theatre came in the 1990s with the debut of musical biographies of Australian music singersPeter Allen (The Boy From Oz in 1998) andJohnny O'Keefe (Shout! The Legend of The Wild One).
InThe One Day of the Year,Alan Seymour studied the paradoxical nature of theANZAC Day commemoration by Australians of the defeat of theBattle of Gallipoli.Ngapartji Ngapartji, byScott Rankin andTrevor Jamieson, recounts the story of the effects on thePitjantjatjara people of nuclear testing in the Western Desert during theCold War. It is an example of the contemporary fusion of traditions of drama in Australia with Pitjantjatjara actors being supported by a multicultural cast of Greek, Afghan, Japanese and New Zealand heritage.[55]
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