Coal Culture in the Land Down Under

This time last year I was boarding a plane to the great land down under; Australia. Fresh faced and keen I was moving a long, long way from home, off to cuddle some koalas and hide from deadly spiders. But I would soon be surprised to find that the drawbacks of OZ are not the number of creatures trying to kill you, but rather the overly consumerist society obsessed with material things and guided by the need for fuel. I aim to show you my highs and lows from the land down-under, as well as highlight how OZ is ‘fuelled’ by it’s relationship with the fossil fuel industry.

Sunshine and Shopping

Bussleton Pier

I loved Australia. You go to the beach whenever you want. You know it’s going to be blisteringly hot so everything is air conditioned. People take their time, they have fun. Perhaps my most quintessential Aussie memory was in visiting Bussleton Jetty, in Western Australia. It was early springtime, the water hadn’t quite hit summer scorcher levels, and yet children were diving off the jetty left and right, swimming like dolphins. Swimming is in an Australians blood, a day at the beach is standard practice.

Interestingly, this oh-so-Australian culture of fun in the sun has something incredibly American about it. Australians are often loud. They are in your face. They are often incredibly friendly, but also showy and extroverted. They say zucchini instead of courgette, and eggplant rather than aubergine. And much like their big brothers over the pacific, they consume, a lot. Portions are bigger (though not quite to US standards), Christmas is considerably less about family, warmth, and winding down for the year, and more about presents and too much food (driven of course by the fact that Christmas is in summer). And perhaps the most American of all, they are obsessed with cars.

The perfectly groomed gardens of Perth, WA

Cars in Australia are big. Walking around towns in England you see a varied mixture of car sizes, including dozens of cult-classic mini coopers. In OZ you’ll be hard pressed to find anything smaller than a 5-door family-friendly BMW estate. Otherwise perfectly rational, environmentally aware people obsess over needing a bigger car ‘because everyone else does’, and this is all supported by pleasantly cheap petrol prices (at the time of writing AUS prices are around 25% cheaper than UK). Interestingly though, these prices can vary quite considerably, making ‘fuel watch’ the new national sport. News channels show where the cheapest petrol is today, and everyone knows when their ‘fuel day is’ – the day they will find the cheapest fuel in the area.

Hungry for Fuel

Big Cars, Big Roads, Big Country

The obsession with fuel in Australia runs deep. It shapes the culture and invades the minds of individuals. However, it stretches beyond an individual level, the landscape of Australian politics is too affected by the industry. The fuel industry in Australia is a big deal, as one of the biggest producers in the world of natural gas, coal and oil. Australia ranks 33^rd in the world for oil production, 12^th for natural gas and a whopping 4^th in the world for coal production, falling in just behind China, the US and India.^1,2 And yet, as most of this resource is exported, Australia typically teeters on the point of too little fuel in its reservoirs for those who need it, its civilians. Maintaining stores of fuel considerably lower than the recommended for the given population size, and exporting most of its reserves, results in hugely varied prices, thus fuelling the national obsession.

Swan River, Perth

And yet despite the importance of the industry, the masses do their best to turn a blind eye to its impacts. As the government rejects clean energy bills and dabbles in controversial manipulation tactics at the expense of smaller nations, Aussies relish in cheaper petrol and blindly guzzle their limited reserves. The government a poor track record with renewable energy use and have made numerous poor environmental choices over recent years including rejecting a clean energy bill that resulted in the scrapping of renewable energy incentives.^3,4

Delicious food from a vegetarian cafe in the blue mountains

But to enjoy the Australian dream, to have your big cars and want bigger, you need to ignore all of this. Let your life be ruled by the fuel industry and never question it. Of course, not everyone is this extreme. There is a huge vegan movement, and positive steps have been made, such as joining the UK in the plastic bag tax. Additionally, there is a lot of pressure being put on the government to fix the manipulative relationship with East-Timor and their own fuel reserves (definitely read up on this, it involves a whole load of scandal and spying!).^5,6 However until the masses become more aware, the culture of Australia will continue to be one of fun, frolicking and fuel.

Australian culture is complicated, as are most cultures. I would love one day to make the land of sun and surf my home again, but I cannot ignore its flaws. It feels like a little America, consumerist and superficial in a way that makes me yearn for home. I also believe that this could be minimised if Australia improve their relationships with natural resources, increased sustainability promoting creativity and individuality.

Until next time.. Happy Travelling!

Vicky

References

Search This Blog

The Bumbling Bug