Since 1988 Australia has changed quite a bit, one would hope it was for the better and it looks that way. As Australians we have become more health conscious and we have stopped being ashamed of our multiculturalism. There are three domains where change can be noticed the most. These are: Environment, Culture and Social systems. In each of these domains over the past twelve years Australia has become more diverse in culture, richer in Environment and more giving and learned in Social systems.
From the mid twentieth century Australia has been a nation of people who flock to the beach on the weekends as a ritual. Everyone eagerly awaited the arrival of a radio stations car or truck to spray them in cooking oil so they could roast on the beach (quite literally). twelve Years on we have discovered such actions result in less than desirable outcomes and no longer do we wait for the car to spray us with cooking oil but to give us packets of sunscreen. We have made this step forward collectively so that our horrendous rate of death from skin cancer will hopefully drop.
Although its like denuding us of our stereotypical no worries attitude to life now, we have to worry about our health before our fun and social life. In the pre nineteen eighties almost every suburban Australian household had an English garden, with roses and hedges and anything English they could find. This was most probably a reminder of the earlier times when it was hand on heart and all love the monarchy. Unfortunately this is now a phenomenon that has plagued Australia for far too long.
However this trend is dieting thankfully to the republican movement and the gardeners who believe that replanting Australia in it natural species of flora is the best way of going to get back our rugged outback feel and get our natural fauna eating our own food and not some English or introduced species. We are slowly but surely getting into the new beat that Australia is very unique and we cannot keep on being like our European counterparts. Australia is unique in that we have a very diverse sense of culture. We have this diversity because we have so many different cultures living here.
Melbourne has the largest community of Greeks outside of Athens! This is astonishing but just one of the many factors of why we are multicultural. Nowadays being the Australia we live in we are very tolerant of this, and in many ways exploit this by using it as an excuse for a celebration like the Greeks Glendi festival. In the pre nineteen eighties Australia wasn’t quite as tolerant as demonstrated by the whites only policy. This policy was very unfair and made sure that people who weren’t aussie enough were not granted access to Australia. By today’s standards this is not only unfair, but unless good reasons are givin its against the law.
We have changed because being multicultural means being diverse and people get along a lot better then and we can all relate and experience things that are different. The reason this didnt occur before was that people were scared to try and be different because they might have been called un Australian. In the past twelve years Australia has changed to become more tolerant and we have moved on from the British ideas and have become more independent. We ave recovered our own identity but this time as a country of prosperity and an easy lifestyle.
