In this paper I argue that the popularity of four-wheel drive vehicles has important consequences for contemporary notions of place and should he considered in the context of the upsurge in high-tech, especially communication, systems. Four-wheel drive culture encompasses both a literal mobility and a fantasy relationship between urban or suburban regions and those of the great outdoors, especially wilderness. By using the Australian experience as a case study I show that four-wheel drive culture plays a crucial part in the construction of what could be called the deep outback and the deep suburbs. It thereby plays a significant role in a renegotiation of the iconography of national identity.
Get full access to this article
View all access options for this article.
References
1.
4 × 4 Australia1995, January, pages 2–3
2.
AitkenSZonnL, 1993, “Weir(d) sex: Representation of gender–environment relations in Peter Weir's Picnic at Hanging Rock and Gallipoli”Environment and Planning D: Society and Space11191–212
3.
BachmairB, 1991, “From the motor-car to television: Cultural-historical arguments on the meaning of mobility for communication”Media, Culture and Society13521–533
4.
BaldwinMStoddardD, 1973The Off-Road Vehicle and Environmental QualityConservation Foundation, 1717 Massachusetts Avenue, NW, Washington, DC 20036
ClayRHingstonAAslinH, (Eds), 1988National Parks: Perceptions & Expectations. A South Australian Study OP4, Centre for Environmental Studies, University of Adelaide
DanielsS, 1993Fields of Vision: Landscape Imagery & National Identity in England & the United States (Polity Press, Cambridge)
13.
da SilvaW, 1993, “From the outback to the new frontier” 21.C Autumn, pages 8–11
14.
DavidsonR, 1982Tracks (Granada, St Albans, Herts)
15.
DeleuzeDGuattariF, 1987A Thousand Plateaus (University of Minnesota Press, Minneapolis, MN)
16.
DuruzJ, 1994, “Suburban gardens: Cultural notes”, in Beasts of Suburbia Eds FerberSHealeyCMcAuliffeC, (Melbourne University Press, Melbourne) pp 198–213
17.
EdingtonJEdingtonM, 1986Ecology, Recreation and Tourism (Cambridge University Press, Cambridge)
18.
FerberSHealeyCMcAuliffeC, (Eds), 1994Beasts of Suburbia (Melbourne University Press, Melbourne)
19.
FiskeJHodgeBTurnerG, 1987Myths of Oz (Allen and Unwin, Sydney)
20.
FoucaultM, 1986, “Of other spaces”Diacritics1622–27
21.
FullerP, 1988Theoria (Chatto and Windus, London)
22.
GibsonKWatsonS, (Eds), 1994Metropolis Now: Planning and the Urban in Contemporary Australia (Pluto Press, Leichhardt, NSW)
23.
GibsonR, 1992South of the West (Indiana University Press, Bloomington, IN)
24.
GiddensA, 1991Modernity and Self-Identity (Stanford University Press, Stanford, CA)
25.
GrandageJ, 1976, “The bushwalker's viewpoint on off-road vehicles”, in Off-Road Vehicles: Some Policy, Planning and Management Considerations Eds WoodJRobertsonR, Australian Institute of Parks and Recreation, PO Box 603, Dickson, ACT 2602, Australia, pp 129–138
26.
HarawayD, 1991Simians, Cyborgs and Women (Free Association Books, London)
27.
HartleyJ, 1992The Politics of Pictures (Routledge, London)
28.
HarveyD, 1989The Condition of Postmodernity (Basil Blackwell, Oxford)
29.
HatfieldW, 1941Australia Through the Windscreen (Angus and Robertson, Sydney)
30.
HillE, 1942The Great Australian Loneliness (Robertson and Mullens, Melbourne)
31.
HoornJ, 1992, “Misogyny and modernist painting in Australia: How male critics made modernism their own”Journal of Australian Studies327–17
32.
HoughJ, 1995, “Don't leave your dentures in the desert”The Adelaide Advertiser 10 February, pages 8–9
33.
JacksonEWongR, 1982, “Perceived conflict between urban cross-country skiers and snowmobilers in Alberta”Journal of Leisure Research1447–61
KnoppTTygerJ, 1973, “A study of conflict in recreational land use: Snowmobiling vs ski-touring”Journal of Leisure Research56–18
36.
LavenderTCorbettD, 1987The Heysen Trail: Parachilna to HawkerDepartment of Recreation and Sport, LVI 9/11 Hindmarsh Square, Adelaide, South Australia 5000
37.
LesslieRTaylorS, 1983Wilderness in South Australia OP-1, Centre for Environmental Studies, University of Adelaide
38.
McGrathA, 1991, “Travels to a distant past: The mythology of the outback”Australian Cultural History10113–124
39.
MaloufD, 1980An Imaginary Life (Picador, Sydney)
40.
MesserJMosleyG, (Eds), 1982What Future for Australia's Arid Lands?Australian Conservation Foundation, 340 Gore Street, Fitzroy, Victoria
41.
MorrisM, 1988, “Panorama”, in Island in the Stream Ed. FossP, (Pluto Press, Leichhardt, NSW) pp 160–187
42.
OlsenJ, 1984The Land Beyond TimeArt Gallery of Western Australia, PO Box 8683, Stirling Street, Perth, WA 6849
43.
PlantM, 1994, “The painted garden: Gardens in Australian art”Art and Australia3250–65
44.
RatcliffeF, 1951Flying Fox and Drifting Sand (Angus and Robertson, Sydney)
SackR, 1988, “The consumer's world: Place as context”Annals of the Association of American Geographers78642–644
47.
ShortJ, 1991Imagined Country (Routledge, London)
48.
TaceyD, 1994, “At the edge of the sacred: Landscape, aboriginality and dreaming”Harvest4060–76
49.
VirilioP, 1991The Lost Dimension [Semiotext(c), New York]
50.
WarkM, 1988, “On technological time”Arena8382–100
51.
Weekend Australian1995, “Gets you out of deep Kakadu”, 29–30 July, page 15
52.
WhiteP, 1957Voss (Eyre and Spottiswoode, London)
53.
WhiteR, 1981Inventing Australia (Allen and Unwin, Sydney)
54.
WillisA-M, 1993Illusions of Identity: The Art of Nation (Hale and Iremonger, Sydney)
55.
WoodJRobertsonR, 1976Off-Road Vehicles: Some Policy, Planning and Management ConsiderationsAustralian Institute of Parks and Recreation, PO Box 603, Dickson, ACT 2602
56.
WoodwardB, 1995, “Is the modern 4WD Vehicle ‘saviour’ or ‘sinner’?”Geo Australiasia17(3) 26–36
57.
WrightBKingB, 1982, “Tourism”, in What Future for Australia's Arid Lands? Eds MesserJMosleyG, Australian Conservation Foundation, 340 Gore Street, Fitzroy, Victoria, pp 169–170
