The bush legend has been criticized as a stereotype of Australian culture and exclusive to a particular part of Australian society. Critical attention towards the bush legend as a national symbol began in the 1950s due to the influence of Russel Ward’s The Australian Legend (1958) (Carter 2006). Ward argued that the qualities assumed to be typically Australian were connected to the pastoral community of Australia (Carter 2006). These qualities were associated with male pastoral workers whom were (according to Ward) seen as practical, great improvisers, heavy gamblers and drinkers, confident, taciturn, independent, hospitable, loyal, capable of great exertion during emergencies but ultimately lazy without a good cause to work, and skeptical of religion and of intellectual and cultural pursuits (Ward 1958). Despite…show more content… According to Murrie, “Women, family, and sexuality are definitive terms in patriarchal cultures and ideologies and occupy a central place in most conceptions of masculinity” (2000, p. 82). So to exclude women in the bush character of Australia is to put the typical Australian as representing a small section of society in Australia (one that does not include the father figure as apart of Australian culture). Additionally, Ward’s depiction of the bush legend underplayed the role of indigenous Australians in Australian culture (Stephens 2003). For example, aborigines became a crucial part of the pastoral industry as laborers, domestics, and stockworkers (including many Aboriginal stockwomen) (Carter 2006). So the heroes of the white national story (the bushman or pastoralists) all depended upon Aboriginal assistance (Carter 2006). In all, the bush legend, as described by Russel Ward, only represents a small section of Australian culture and
