Australain Experience

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The Australian experience By Anthony Talty The Australian experience is that special felling that all Australians can relate to. A song or a story could trigger it. For each Australian it causes different images or feelings. While it is unique to everybody most people when asked about the Australian experience see it as having something to do with the outback, sports and the need for heroes.

In Australia there are many different songs and poems about life in the outback and sporting heroes.

The stockman's lament a poem by Henry Lawson is about a bush stockman sent into the Second World War. The stockman has been injured in the fighting and is talking about his loves for the Australian outback and his dislikes for the Australian government. The bushman wants to go home and die in the piece of his bushland home in Australia The stockman thought the poem expresses hatred towards the Australian government that he calls "they're all a bunch of red or blue crosses"Ã¯Â¿Â½ by this statement he means that Australia is run too much like England.

Also the government will do any thing to impress the English.

Click goes the shears is a traditional Australian folk song that is about an Australian bushman who is a shearer working on a shearing station. The shearer is racing against time to shear the most possible sheep. The shearer's boss is sitting down watching the shearers working to make sure they do it properly.

Towards the end of the song the perspective changes to the shears who says "we've all got our pay checks so role up your swags and its off down the tracks "this shows that the shearers work only for the money and work hard and move on as soon as the job has finished "The colonial experienced man"Ã¯Â¿Â½ is said to be at the shearing station as well after finishing rounding up the sheep for the shearers to shear. He is portrayed as an Australian larrikin.

The man from Snowy River is a poem by A.B (Banjo) Patterson. The poem is about a group of men trying to capture a colt that has escaped and has joined the wild horses. This poem shows an incredibly strong link between the bushman and their horses.

Clancy of the overflow was already known as a great horseman by the men that he has joined the hunt for the colt and the wild horses. "No better horsemen had ever held the reins"Ã¯Â¿Â½ this shows us that the men on the hunt looked up to Clancy and when the man from Snowy River arrived the only person to back up the man from Snowy River was Clancy.

The man from Snowy River made himself a hero out on that ride proving to the men that mountain men and horses where the best riders. All the men said that "it was grand to see that mountain horsemen ride"Ã¯Â¿Â½ when the others thought that all hope was lost the man from snowy river continued to ride on.

The need for heroes is the same out on the sporting field as in the outback. Every body needs a hero and many people see sportspeople as a hero when they prove themselves by winning.

Bradman's last innings is a poem by John Foulcher who tries to capture the hero status of Bradman by using condensed language and directly addressing Bradman. It is about Sir Donald Brabman and his last innings that he got bowled for a duck. It is also about the effect Bradman had on the Nation during the depression Australia needed something to lift the spirits and Bradman became a hero for the nation.

Bradman had and effect on the entire Nation leaving his mark on the sporting field forever. John Foulcher said in his poem that "you gave something that the world lacked"Ã¯Â¿Â½ you was referring to Bradman this also showed that his stardom was not only in Australian but all over the world. He is regarded as the greatest cricketer ever.

C'mon Aussies C'mon is a song frequently sung at the cricket it is written by Allan Johnson and Allan Jones. It was written in 1978 about the Australian cricket team it is about who will make the Australian cricket team. They where calling it the best cricket team ever.

The way the team was seen was expressed through the song "we'll be in there tiring to tame the British lion"Ã¯Â¿Â½ they where going to face the English super team. It was important because Australians love competition and winning.

The stockman from the stockman's lament is a hero because he went over to another country after living all his life in the outback. He left all his friends behind to fight the war for the English In click goes the shears both the colonial experienced man and the Shearer are both portrayed as hard working Australian larrikins doing it tough on the harsh Australian out back this is what make them heroes The man from snowy is a hero because he would go where no man would go and was the only person to ever be able to catch the wild horses Bradman was a hero because he was doing so well making Australia proud in a time of depression he was also the only person to be able to bat that well.

The whole cricket team was regarded as heroes in the song "C'mon Aussie C'mon"Ã¯Â¿Â½ because it was seen as the best team that Australia had in a long time. They where held in highly regarded because they beat the English men unbeaten run and where winning themselves Australians love heroes and they need them. Two places that Australians find heroes are in the outback coping with harsh conditions and another place is on the sporting fields battling against the odds. Without heroes Australians sense of national pride would diminish.