At the ends of the world: apocalypse and Australian speculative fiction

293 Pages·2014·1.58 MB·English

University of Wollongong
Research Online
University of Wollongong Thesis Collection University of Wollongong Thesis Collections
2007
At the ends of the world: apocalypse and Australian
speculative fiction
Roslyn Weaver
University of Wollongong
Recommended Citation
Weaver, Roslyn, At the ends of the world: apocalypse and Australian speculative fiction, Doctor of Philosophy thesis, Faculty of Arts,
University of Wollongong, 2007. http://ro.uow.edu.au/theses/1733
Research Online is the open access institutional repository for the
University of Wollongong. For further information contact the UOW
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AT THE ENDS OF THE WORLD:

APOCALYPSE AND AUSTRALIAN SPECULATIVE FICTION

A thesis submitted in fulfilment of the
requirements for the award of the degree

DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY

from

UNIVERSITY OF WOLLONGONG

by

ROSLYN WEAVER, BA (HONS)

FACULTY OF ARTS
2007
CERTIFICATION

I, Roslyn Weaver, declare that this thesis, submitted in fulfilment of the requirements
for the award of Doctor of Philosophy, in the Faculty of Arts, University of
Wollongong, is wholly my own work unless otherwise referenced or acknowledged.
The document has not been submitted for qualifications at any other academic
institution.

Roslyn Weaver

21 September 2007
Contents

List of Illustrations ii
Abstract iii
Acknowledgments v
Chapter One 1
Introduction
Chapter Two 44
The Apocalyptic Map
Chapter Three 81
The Edge of the World: Australian Apocalypse After 1945
Chapter Four 115
Exile in “The Nothing”: Land as Apocalypse in the Mad Max films
Chapter Five 147
Children of the Apocalypse: Australian Adolescent Literature
Chapter Six 181
The “Sacred Heart”: Indigenous Apocalypse
Chapter Seven 215
“Slipstreaming the End of the World”: Australian Apocalypse and Cyberpunk
Conclusion 249
Bibliography 253

i
List of Illustrations

Figure 1. Typus orbis terrarum, 1570 53
Figure 2. A Complete Map of the Southern Continent, 1744 56
Figure 3. Novae Guineae forma, & situs, 1593 59
Figure 4. Million Farms Campaign, 1919-1925 76
Figure 5. Down There in Darkness, 1999 99
Figure 6. Mad Max 2: The Road Warrior, 1981 133
Figure 7. Mad Max: Beyond Thunderdome, 1985 133
Figure 8. Nylon Angel, 2004 223

ii
Abstract

This thesis examines the enduring theme of apocalypse in Australian speculative
fiction. Australia has been a frequent choice as the location for narratives about disaster
and the end of the world, including some of the most famous apocalyptic texts, such as
Nevil Shute’s On the Beach and the Mad Max films. Australian apocalypse is a popular
and recurring tradition, appearing within the tropes of nuclear war, ecological disaster,
violent invasions and brutal colonisation narratives, in speculative literature and film,
and in works for adults and children.
This thesis argues that the popularity of apocalypse in Australian fictions has its
origins in pre-colonial European speculation about the terra australis incognita. For
hundreds of years prior to colonisation, European cartographers and writers imagined
the unknown southern land in many different ways. Speculation about this new land
ranged from hopes of a new world – the apocalyptic New Jerusalem – or a secular place
of wealth and fortune, to fictions that imagined the land as a place of horror and
dystopia, the end of the world. This perpetual and persistent speculation established an
apocalyptic map of Australia before colonists even experienced the land, and has
resulted in a tradition of imagining the nation in apocalyptic terms ever since.
Apocalypse means revelation, but the popular imagination often associates it
with destruction, such as writers and filmmakers who reveal a catastrophic future or past
Australia. This thesis examines Australian fictions that adopt and adapt a secular
version of the biblical apocalypse, and these texts often concentrate on disaster and
suggest that there is no new world, that all hope for a better future is false. These
speculative fictions utilise apocalypse for different reasons. The texts undermine
iii
complacency, warn of future environmental disasters, and act as a language of
resistance and protest for minority groups. Despite the different approaches and
scenarios, many of the texts display similar anxieties about the nation and its
vulnerability to its neighbours, and construct the landscape as an apocalyptic space, a
place of exile and punishment. Some of the fictions articulate and then deny these
anxieties, while in others the fears remain as a shadow to more optimistic visions of the
southern land.
Many of these narratives imagine Australia as, and at, the end(s) of the world,
both geographically and psychologically. These recurring and pervasive associations of
the nation and disaster suggest that there is a significant and integral relationship
between Australia and apocalypse.

iv
Acknowledgments

I would like to acknowledge the guidance of my supervisor, Gerry Turcotte,
whose invaluable assistance and time during my studies I greatly appreciate, especially
his continued support of the project after moving to the University of Notre Dame. I
would also like to thank my co-supervisor Richard Harland for his feedback and help, as
well as Paul Sharrad for his advice, and Kimberley McMahon-Coleman for her support
and friendship.
In particular I want to thank my family: my parents David and Kay, and
Carolyn, Michael, and their families, and Margaret, for their unfailing support,
encouragement and motivation.
v
1

Introduction

But the day of the Lord will come like a thief. The heavens will disappear with a
roar; the elements will be destroyed by fire, and the earth and everything in it will
be laid bare. Since everything will be destroyed in this way, what kind of people
ought you to be? You ought to live holy and godly lives as you look forward to the
day of God and speed its coming. That day will bring about the destruction of the
heavens by fire, and the elements will melt in the heat. But in keeping with his
promise we are looking forward to a new heaven and a new earth, the home of
righteousness.
– 2 Peter 3:10-13

Our end-determined fictions ... are placed at what Dante calls the point where all
times are present, il punto a cui tutti li tempi son presenti; or within the shadow of
it. It gives each moment its fullness. And although for us the End has perhaps lost
its naïve imminence, its shadow still lies on the crises of our fictions; we may speak
of it as immanent.
– Frank Kermode, The Sense of an Ending 6

This thesis will investigate the recurring theme of apocalypse in Australian
speculative fictions. Imagining Australia in apocalyptic terms has long been of interest
to Australian writers. Even before colonisation, speculation on the unknown southern
land mass often located monstrosity there, envisioning a fantastical land of strange
creatures (see, for example, de Jode, de Foigny). Alongside this was a picture of
Australia as a space of potential and promise (for example, Bowen), but this alternative
scenario has always competed with a darker vision.
Envisaging Australia in apocalyptic, catastrophic terms remains popular in
contemporary fantastic fictions. Many Australian speculative texts narrate the country’s
complete destruction in the future or its chaotic society post-apocalypse. The
apocalyptic scenario is recognisable in works by writers (Nevil Shute’s On the Beach,
Gabrielle Lord’s Salt) and filmmakers (Where the Green Ants Dream, Until the End of
the World), found in texts for adults (Tess Williams’ Map of Power, Simon Brown’s
Winter) and for children (Lee Harding’s Waiting for the End of the World, John
1