THE AUSTRALIAN BEACHSPACE: FLAGGING THE SPACES OF AUSTRALIAN BEACH TEXTS Elizabeth Ellison Bachelor of Creative Industries (Hons) Submitted in fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy Creative Writing and Literary Studies Discipline School of Media, Entertainment, and Creative Arts Creative Industries Faculty Queensland University of Technology 2013 Supervisory Team Principal Supervisor Dr Lesley Hawkes Creative Writing and Literary Studies Associate Supervisor Dr Sean Maher Film, Television and New Media ii The Australian Beachspace: flagging the spaces of Australian beach texts Keywords Australian beaches, Australian film, Australian literature, Australian studies, gender studies, Indigenous film, Indigenous literature, spatial studies, Thirdspace, beachspace The Australian Beachspace: flagging the spaces of Australian beach texts iii Abstract The Australian beach is a significant component of the Australian culture and a way of life. The Australian Beachspace explores existing research about the Australian beach from a cultural and Australian studies perspective. Initially, the beach in Australian studies has been established within a binary opposition. Fiske, Hodge, and Turner (1987) pioneered the concept of the beach as a mythic space, simultaneously beautiful but abstract. In comparison, Meaghan Morris (1998) suggested that the beach was in fact an ordinary or everyday space. The research intervenes in previous discussions, suggesting that the Australian beach needs to be explored in spatial terms as well as cultural ones. The thesis suggests the beach is more than these previously established binaries and uses Soja’s theory of Thirdspace (1996) to posit the term beachspace as a way of describing this complex site. The beachspace is a lived space that encompasses both the mythic and ordinary and more. A variety of texts have been explored in this work, both film and literature. The thesis examines textual representations of the Australian beach using Soja’s Thirdspace as a frame to reveal the complexities of the Australian beach through five thematic chapters. Some of the texts discussed include works by Tim Winton’s Breath (2008) and Land’s Edge (1993), Robert Drewe’s short story collections The Bodysurfers (1987) and The Rip (2008), and films such as Newcastle (dir. Dan Castle 2008) and Blackrock (dir. Steve Vidler 1997). Ultimately The Australian Beachspace illustrates that the multiple meanings of the beach’s representations are complex and yet frequently fail to capture the layered reality of the Australian beach. The Australian beach is best described as a beachspace, a complex space that allows for the mythic and/or/both ordinary at once. iv The Australian Beachspace: flagging the spaces of Australian beach texts Table of Contents Supervisory Team ................................................................................................................................. ii Keywords .............................................................................................................................................. iii Abstract ................................................................................................................................................. iv List of Figures ..................................................................................................................................... viii Statement of Original Authorship ....................................................................................................... ix Acknowledgments ................................................................................................................................. x CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION: FLAGGING THE SPACE ......................................................................................... 1 Geography of the Australian beach ............................................................................................. 2 Establishing the literature ............................................................................................................ 3 Mythic meanings ......................................................................................................................... 5 The quotidian beach .................................................................................................................... 7 The beach as a space ................................................................................................................... 9 Space and place ......................................................................................................................... 10 Methodology ............................................................................................................................. 13 The Thirdspace .......................................................................................................................... 14 Ownership of the beach ............................................................................................................. 17 Thesis structure ......................................................................................................................... 18 Chapter Two – Healing Spaces ................................................................................................. 19 Chapter Three – Badland Beaches............................................................................................. 20 Chapter Four – Urban Beachspace ............................................................................................ 21 Chapter Five – The Lived Experience ....................................................................................... 22 Chapter Six – ‘We Grew Here, You Flew Here’ ....................................................................... 23 Chapter Seven - Discussion ....................................................................................................... 24 Conclusion.. ............................................................................................................................... 25 Figure 1: Darwin Beach ............................................................................................................ 27 Figure 2: Beach in Bicheno, Tasmania ..................................................................................... 28 Figure 3: Winter’s day in Burleigh Heads, Queensland ........................................................... 29 CHAPTER 2: HEALING SPACES: EXPLORING THE BEACH AS A SPACE OF TRANSFORMATION AND TRANSCENDENCE .............................................................................................................................. 31 Healing…… .............................................................................................................................. 35 The Australian Beachspace: flagging the spaces of Australian beach texts v The ‘getaway’ or getting away with a holiday .......................................................................... 43 Spirituality and transcendence ................................................................................................... 51 Surfer versus lifesaver ............................................................................................................... 59 Conclusion… ............................................................................................................................. 62 Figure 5: An isolated beach, Fraser Island .............................................................................. 64 CHAPTER 3: BADLAND BEACHSPACE: DISRUPTED MYTHS, FEAR, AND CRIME ........................................... 65 Landscape myth ......................................................................................................................... 66 Disrupting mythic imagery ........................................................................................................ 67 ‘Real’ crime ............................................................................................................................... 73 Fear……….. .............................................................................................................................. 77 Badland beachspace .................................................................................................................. 81 Bondi Beach: the ultimate badlands .......................................................................................... 86 Conclusion.. ............................................................................................................................... 93 Figure 6: Cottesloe Beach at night, Perth ................................................................................. 95 CHAPTER 4: URBAN BEACHSPACE: THE SPACES BETWEEN THE NATURAL AND THE URBAN ................. 97 The urban beach ...................................................................................................................... 100 Environmental concerns .......................................................................................................... 103 Natural hazards and the role of technology ............................................................................. 106 Sport on the beach ................................................................................................................... 113 A case in point: Surfers Paradise ............................................................................................