Australia's Got Culture

What’s the difference between Australia and Yoghurt?

Yoghurt has a culture!

Classic.

Ah the hilarity of Australia’s culture apparently being a black hole when it comes to anything other than sport and beaches. Under that concept, half of our culture is defined by the physical characteristics of where we live and the other half is only recognised by the rest of the world once every four years at the Olympics.

This continuing argument that Australia lacks culture is starting to piss me off.

To get a little bit high school debating, the inbuilt dictionary on my computer defines culture as;

The arts and other manifestations of human intellectual achievement regarded collectively

Under this definition, how can we continually refer to ourselves, and let other nationalities refer to us, as being culture-less? Australians have recently played a major role in what has been referred to as one of the most significant discoveries in the field of physics in history  - the discovery of the Higgs Boson particle. Australian scientists were involved in the design, testing and construction of key parts of the Large Hadron Collider. And our endeavors in the scientific fields aren’t just restricted to current discoveries; Australians throughout history have left indelible marks in arts, science and business.

Despite his American citizenship and his penchant for eavesdropping, media mogul Rupert Murdoch has transformed the media industry (for better or worse is a matter of opinion). Kerry Packer’s shadow loomed large over the Australian media industry and anecdotes of his personal and professional endeavors are still at the forefront of the minds of Australians. So much so that his efforts to revolutionise the cricket world will soon be immortalized in the new tv series Howzat.

Even now an Australian woman is preeminent in the business world. Recently named the richest woman in the world, Gina Rinehardt is certainly leaving her somewhat sizeable imprint on the world – in fact, I wouldn’t be surprised if “to pull a Gina” doesn’t enter the vernacular of Australian parents to describe when they put their children offside.

Australian literary giants Banjo Patterson and Henry Lawson conveyed the beauty and character of our country through their words, while great thespians such as Cate Blanchett, Hugh Jackman and Yahoo Serious demonstrated the talent that can grow from the Land Down Under through their actions.

And these are but just the few Aussies who I could think of without having to do any further research into the subject. But despite all of these individuals and their globally significant achievements, it would appear that the Australian culture is to continually criticise our apparent lack of culture. We may be a young country but that just means our culture is a developing one. So, how to put Australia’s culture into words? Thespians, scientific, media moguls, multicultural, developing, awesome?

Australia has a rich and diverse culture, but buggered if I can define it.