A Look At Australia

Press, Volume C, Issue 29709, 30 December 1961, Page 3

A Look At Australia

Australian Paradox. By Jeanne MacKenzie. F. W. Cheshire. 239 pp. In 1969 and 1960. Mrs MacKenzie. wife of the “New Stateman” writer Norman MacKenzle. took a good long look at Australia, travelling widely over the continent and meeting lots of Australians, old. not so old and new. Now in a remarkably short time, she has produced a sort of sociological travelogue that is probably one of the best critical surveys ever ■written about Australia and Its people. Mrs MacKenzie was in Australia long enough to examine carefully and probe deeply, 'but not so long that she lost an outsider’s freshness of approach. Among her aims was to find what the Australian really is. She talked with aborigines, longsettled Australians and New Australians to find her answers. Her probing covered everything from education and social services to how an aboriginal co-operative is run. She found a “suburbia, in-the-sun” where the emptiness of life in the vast inland is matched by the emptiness of life in the sprawling suburbs of the big cities. Australians, she found, were in the main comfortable and secure, but something was missing from the Australian way of life. Australian suburban life pushed people into isolated units “deriving pleasure from TV. gardening, bowling, tennis, the pub and the cinema.” Friendliness of the Australians at the first meeting often did not have its ostensible strength. Mrs MacKenzie was surprised by the Victorian attitudes shown by Austra. liana. Her survey is critical but friendly. However, her book will probably cause some controversy in Australia. Many of her judgments about Australia and Australians are equally valid about New Zealand and New Zealanders. and for that alone it is really worthwhile reading. Her style is brisk and easy and she has resisted the temptation to bog her survey dnwa in figures to illustrate •her points.