The Beach and the Australian Imaginary

The beach is framed as a pivotal space in the Australian national imaginary. Mainstream film, television, literature and art in Australia have portrayed the beach as central to Australian life, culture and identity. Political and cultural discourses construct beaches as egalitarian spaces that are free and accessible to all people. These interpretations obscure the deep inequalities within Australian society, and how these inequalities are reproduced within, and around, beaches. As I show in this chapter, the beach is also frequently claimed as a settler-colonial place, where whiteness is privileged and normalised. This is evident in the construct of beaches as border spaces, where ethno-nationalist groups, individuals and policy making aim to protect territorial sovereignty. To illustrate this argument, the chapter draws on two approaches to boundary and border creation within beaches. First, the chapter studies examples such as the Cronulla Riots and ‘Reclaim the Beach’ protests, which construct beaches as white, settler-colonial spaces. Second, this chapter analyses immigration policy, developed by successive Australian governments, which construct the beach as a literal border in the name of national security. In each of these cases, violence is portrayed by the protagonists as necessary to protect the Australian identity and national imaginary.