The Vision Splendid: Conceptualizing the Bush, 1813-1913.

This article focuses on the incorporation of the Bush or rural Australia between 1813 and 1913. The introduction of advanced forms of technology and communication, the industrialization of agricultural production, resulted in the incorporation of rural Australia, its adoption of industrial capitalism, and its more complete inclusion in a national market economy. It also meant a society and economy in which success in agriculture or mining required a considerable capital investment. The incorporation of rural Australia held cultural as well as economic implications, because it opened the opportunity for more frequent interchange between city and Bush. The incorporation of the Bush involved not only the introduction of new forms of technology and communication, of industrialization, but also meant that country folk were more exposed to urban popular culture, both as a result of their own visits to the city, and the increasing penetration of rural Australia by urban cultural distinctiveness. There was a series of popular conceptions or images in Australia between 1813 and 1913 and these were constantly changing and reforming as a result of transformations in rural and urban Australia, and on the altered relationship between the city and the Bush.