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. ENVIRONMENT 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
station’s 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. CULTURE 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 didn’t 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.