Australia in the late nineteenth century was still a loose assemblage of states and territories. Not until 1901 did the nation form a federal union out of its six states and territories, spread over a vast and diverse landscape. Despite this, the cultural elite, especially in Sydney and Melbourne, were on a search for a cohesive national identity far prior to federation. It may seem odd that two urban enclaves would seek to dictate the boundaries of an entire national identity, especially in a country with such a huge mass of rural land. Yet like many cultural centers around the world, the literary elite of Sydney and Melbourne exerted an outsized cultural influence on the rest of the country. This situation was exacerbated in Australia by the fact that in the 1890s, it was one of the most highly urbanized countries in the world (and still is today).
Paradoxically, as Australia's major cities grew rapidly and the country moved towards federation, nostalgia for rural life grew in popularity. The struggle to define what was unique about Australian culture by its rural life was, in some ways, an effort to distinguish Australian values and culture from Europe and to a lesser extent, the United States. Australian society, in this view, valued egalitarianism whereas Europeans preferred social hierarchies; Old Word institutions around religion and and statehood held less sway in Australia. Nor was the Australian national subject individualistic, but instead, populist. The preferred setting to imagine these uniquely nationalistic ideals, for many people, was rural Australia.
Out of this political and cultural change came a new nationalist school of literature; in particular a new genre called the "bush yarn," a story from the Australian outback. In Sydney, this literary scene revolved around a newspaper called The Bulletin, colloquially known as the “Bushman’s Bible." Its most influential editor, J.F. Archibald, emulated many aspects of the West Coast American journalist scene, even deriving the name of his newspaper from the San Francisco Evening Bulletin. But in content, Archibald encouraged the development of an “authentic” Australian literature. The Bulletin's writers became known for an egalitarian, democratic sensibility filled with "local color." In particular, A.B. "Banjo" Patterson was a master of romanticism, and his ballads and verses inspired the Australian national consciousness with images of the bush; Henry Lawson also wrote about the bush, but was known for his realism and dry, sardonic style. Both helped write into being a cohesive national identity, and usher in a new Australian nation-state.
