University of Wollongong Research Online Faculty of Science - Papers (Archive) Faculty of Science, Medicine and Health 2009 Place and music: Performing "the region" on the New South Wales Far North Coast Christopher R. Gibson University of Wollongong,
[email protected] Follow this and additional works at: https://ro.uow.edu.au/scipapers Part of the Life Sciences Commons, Physical Sciences and Mathematics Commons, and the Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons Recommended Citation Gibson, Christopher R.: Place and music: Performing "the region" on the New South Wales Far North Coast 2009, 60-81. https://ro.uow.edu.au/scipapers/1265 Research Online is the open access institutional repository for the University of Wollongong. For further information contact the UOW Library:
[email protected] Place and music: Performing "the region" on the New South Wales Far North Coast Abstract This paper draws on research conducted for over a decade on the musical cultures of the New South Wales Far North Coast, as a contribution to debates in geography and popular music studies on the links between music, place and articulations of cultural identities. Patterns of migration and economic restructuring over the last 20 years have transformed the Far North Coast region, with associated changes in the images conjured to describe the region – from those centred on dairying, fishing and sugar harvesting to those of a ‘lifestyle’ or ‘alternative’ region, with growth in employment in tourism, recreational services, ‘gourmet’ agricultural production, culinary delights, homewares retail and the arts. Music has been a constant presence in the region throughout generations, but became much more pronounced after significant counter-urban migrations to the area began in the 1970s.