Australians since the early part of this century has been preoccupied with the idea of capturing and representing an Australian distinctiveness - the much-vaunted "Australian Identity". It is a familiar irony that one of the most urbanised countries in the world (since at least the late 19th century) should have sought this identity in constructed myths of the 'bush' - the famous 'Legend of the Nineties' popularised in the writing of Henry Lawson, Banjo Patterson and others and still exploited in recent movies such as Crocodile Dundee and TV shows such as The Bush Tucker Man.
Another irony is that the playwright who came to be seen as the pioneer of Australian drama, Louis Esson was an inner city Melbourne bohemian who took his model from the Irish
The most common misconception is that Australians are tall, blonde haired, blue eyed athletic types. True, some are like that, but not many.
folk nationalism of WB Yeats and JM Synge. Under their influence he tried to discover in the Australian bush some equivalent of the Celtic myths and folk and peasant traditions that his Irish mentors were drawing on.
The face of Australia is undergoing many changes and, due to large amounts of immigration, many Australians can boast quite a mixed heritage. Without a doubt, it is now possible to claim with some confidence that every nation on earth has now contributed genes to the Australian genetic pool.
The first Europeans to settle in Australia were British and Irish. The British were both convicts and free settlers, the Irish
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