Apocalypse and Australian Speculative Fiction Roslyn Weaver University of Wollongong

University of Wollongong Research Online University of Wollongong Thesis Collection University of Wollongong Thesis Collections 2007 At the ends of the world: apocalypse and Australian speculative fiction Roslyn Weaver University of Wollongong Recommended Citation Weaver, Roslyn, At the ends of the world: apocalypse and Australian speculative fiction, Doctor of Philosophy thesis, Faculty of Arts, University of Wollongong, 2007. http://ro.uow.edu.au/theses/1733 Research Online is the open access institutional repository for the University of Wollongong. For further information contact the UOW Library: [email protected] AT THE ENDS OF THE WORLD: APOCALYPSE AND AUSTRALIAN SPECULATIVE FICTION A thesis submitted in fulfilment of the requirements for the award of the degree DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY from UNIVERSITY OF WOLLONGONG by ROSLYN WEAVER, BA (HONS) FACULTY OF ARTS 2007 CERTIFICATION I, Roslyn Weaver, declare that this thesis, submitted in fulfilment of the requirements for the award of Doctor of Philosophy, in the Faculty of Arts, University of Wollongong, is wholly my own work unless otherwise referenced or acknowledged. The document has not been submitted for qualifications at any other academic institution. Roslyn Weaver 21 September 2007 Contents List of Illustrations ii Abstract iii Acknowledgments v Chapter One 1 Introduction Chapter Two 44 The Apocalyptic Map Chapter Three 81 The Edge of the World: Australian Apocalypse After 1945 Chapter Four 115 Exile in “The Nothing”: Land as Apocalypse in the Mad Max films Chapter Five 147 Children of the Apocalypse: Australian Adolescent Literature Chapter Six 181 The “Sacred Heart”: Indigenous Apocalypse Chapter Seven 215 “Slipstreaming the End of the World”: Australian Apocalypse and Cyberpunk Conclusion 249 Bibliography 253 i List of Illustrations Figure 1. Typus orbis terrarum, 1570 53 Figure 2. A Complete Map of the Southern Continent, 1744 56 Figure 3. Novae Guineae forma, & situs, 1593 59 Figure 4. Million Farms Campaign, 1919-1925 76 Figure 5. Down There in Darkness, 1999 99 Figure 6. Mad Max 2: The Road Warrior, 1981 133 Figure 7. Mad Max: Beyond Thunderdome, 1985 133 Figure 8. Nylon Angel, 2004 223 ii Abstract This thesis examines the enduring theme of apocalypse in Australian speculative fiction. Australia has been a frequent choice as the location for narratives about disaster and the end of the world, including some of the most famous apocalyptic texts, such as Nevil Shute’s On the Beach and the Mad Max films. Australian apocalypse is a popular and recurring tradition, appearing within the tropes of nuclear war, ecological disaster, violent invasions and brutal colonisation narratives, in speculative literature and film, and in works for adults and children. This thesis argues that the popularity of apocalypse in Australian fictions has its origins in pre-colonial European speculation about the terra australis incognita. For hundreds of years prior to colonisation, European cartographers and writers imagined the unknown southern land in many different ways. Speculation about this new land ranged from hopes of a new world – the apocalyptic New Jerusalem – or a secular place of wealth and fortune, to fictions that imagined the land as a place of horror and dystopia, the end of the world. This perpetual and persistent speculation established an apocalyptic map of Australia before colonists even experienced the land, and has resulted in a tradition of imagining the nation in apocalyptic terms ever since. Apocalypse means revelation, but the popular imagination often associates it with destruction, such as writers and filmmakers who reveal a catastrophic future or past Australia. This thesis examines Australian fictions that adopt and adapt a secular version of the biblical apocalypse, and these texts often concentrate on disaster and suggest that there is no new world, that all hope for a better future is false. These speculative fictions utilise apocalypse for different reasons. The texts undermine iii complacency, warn of future environmental disasters, and act as a language of resistance and protest for minority groups. Despite the different approaches and scenarios, many of the texts display similar anxieties about the nation and its vulnerability to its neighbours, and construct the landscape as an apocalyptic space, a place of exile and punishment. Some of the fictions articulate and then deny these anxieties, while in others the fears remain as a shadow to more optimistic visions of the southern land. Many of these narratives imagine Australia as, and at, the end(s) of the world, both geographically and psychologically. These recurring and pervasive associations of the nation and disaster suggest that there is a significant and integral relationship between Australia and apocalypse. iv Acknowledgments I would like to acknowledge the guidance of my supervisor, Gerry Turcotte, whose invaluable assistance and time during my studies I greatly appreciate, especially his continued support of the project after moving to the University of Notre Dame. I would also like to thank my co-supervisor Richard Harland for his feedback and help, as well as Paul Sharrad for his advice, and Kimberley McMahon-Coleman for her support and friendship. In particular I want to thank my family: my parents David and Kay, and Carolyn, Michael, and their families, and Margaret, for their unfailing support, encouragement and motivation. v 1 Introduction But the day of the Lord will come like a thief. The heavens will disappear with a roar; the elements will be destroyed by fire, and the earth and everything in it will be laid bare. Since everything will be destroyed in this way, what kind of people ought you to be? You ought to live holy and godly lives as you look forward to the day of God and speed its coming. That day will bring about the destruction of the heavens by fire, and the elements will melt in the heat. But in keeping with his promise we are looking forward to a new heaven and a new earth, the home of righteousness. – 2 Peter 3:10-13 Our end-determined fictions ... are placed at what Dante calls the point where all times are present, il punto a cui tutti li tempi son presenti; or within the shadow of it. It gives each moment its fullness. And although for us the End has perhaps lost its naïve imminence, its shadow still lies on the crises of our fictions; we may speak of it as immanent. – Frank Kermode, The Sense of an Ending 6 This thesis will investigate the recurring theme of apocalypse in Australian speculative fictions. Imagining Australia in apocalyptic terms has long been of interest to Australian writers. Even before colonisation, speculation on the unknown southern land mass often located monstrosity there, envisioning a fantastical land of strange creatures (see, for example, de Jode, de Foigny). Alongside this was a picture of Australia as a space of potential and promise (for example, Bowen), but this alternative scenario has always competed with a darker vision. Envisaging Australia in apocalyptic, catastrophic terms remains popular in contemporary fantastic fictions. Many Australian speculative texts narrate the country’s complete destruction in the future or its chaotic society post-apocalypse. The apocalyptic scenario is recognisable in works by writers (Nevil Shute’s On the Beach, Gabrielle Lord’s Salt) and filmmakers (Where the Green Ants Dream, Until the End of the World), found in texts for adults (Tess Williams’ Map of Power, Simon Brown’s Winter) and for children (Lee Harding’s Waiting for the End of the World, John 1 Marsden’s Tomorrow, When the War Began) and in texts by authors of both genders and varying cultural backgrounds. Some writers have used religious scenarios, such as Robert Potter’s The Germ Growers and Helen Simpson’s The Woman on the Beast, while others create post-disaster medieval futures, as in the Mad Max films and Sean McMullen’s The Greatwinter Trilogy. And it is also a scenario that non-Australians recognise. British comic illustrators and writers Jamie Hewlett and Alan Martin located Tank Girl in a post-apocalyptic Australia, films such as The Matrix and Dark City used an unidentified Sydney to represent simulated environments hiding a dystopic reality, while cinema (Salute of the Jugger, Pitch Black) and television (Farscape, Thunderstone) have utilised the Australian landscape to show threatening or alien environments. This thesis argues that the persistent linking of apocalypse and Australia both in direct and oblique ways emerged before the British even colonised the country, for there was a tradition that already inscribed the land with noticeably apocalyptic qualities. European speculation about terra australis incognita variously depicted the Antipodes as a hellish place harbouring odd creatures, or, alternatively, as a place of great wealth and riches. An apocalyptic dialectic therefore emerges between utopic visions of a land of promise and bounty – the “lucky country”1 – and a shadow tradition that sees the antipodean land mass as the end of the world both geographically and psychologically. In this context, one can read Jean Baudrillard’s proposition that it is “the map that precedes the territory” (Simulacra 1) in terms of Australian colonisation, because a “map” existed before Europeans ever settled the land, and colonial experiences did little to change the perceptions already in place from the apocalyptic map. After colonisation, the unusual landscape defied attempts to conquer it and render it homelike in European terms. The language and imagery of biblical apocalypse resonate in secular depictions 2 of the Australian environment and outback, creating a place of testing and punishment that is far removed from the fertile and fruitful promised land of European scenery. The country’s status as a penal colony further reinforced the motif of punishment and dread. The endurance of this apocalyptic tradition in contemporary fictions is striking and significant. This thesis argues that the un/conscious associations that authors make between the nation and apocalypse imply that there is an intrinsic relationship between the two, effectively situating the land as an apocalyptic space.

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