Edition 36: What is Australia For?

Australia is no longer small, remote or isolated. It is time to discover What Is Australia For? and acknowledge the wealth of resources beyond mining.

In a powerful memoir, Frank Moorhouse confronts his own mortality when a routine trek through the bush at the back of Bourke takes a wrong turn; Cameron Muir argues for an urgent marriage between health and agriculture; David Hansen investigates the token Aboriginality of a Melbourne residential tower; and Nick Bryant takes the temperature of our cultural cringe.

Dennis Altman asks if Australians have lost the will to create a better society; Robyn Archer contends that sustainability and resilience must be at the heart of our national debate; Kim Mahood offers a lacerating account of white workers in remote Aboriginal communities; David Astle and Romy Ash deliver two outstanding pieces of short fiction.

What Is Australia For? asks the big questions to encourage a robust national discussion about a new Australian identity that reflects our national, regional and global roles.

Other contributors include: Peter Mares, Leah Kaminsky, Jim Davidson, Frances Guo, Bruce Pascoe, Maria Papas, Pat Hoffie, Charlie Ward, Michael Wesley and more.