My mom's neighbour, Annette, gave me a humongous pile of Australian magazines to read. I'm in magazine heaven! My favourites are the Country Style ones.
This bit helps put this country style into perspective:
"As is well known, the first Australian settlers were mainly convicts, reluctantly torn from the place they regarded as home and brought against their will, painfully aware of being regarded as undesirable by the rest of their society. Although there were hardened criminals among them, many had been convicted for desperate acts of survival for themselves and their families - small thefts of food or valuables."
"The burning desire to survive became one of the most distinguishing of Australian characteristics. It led to the inventiveness for which this young country has long been renowned. Another great advantage of being stripped of social 'place' because of exclusion is that the class system that dominated most of the rest of the world never got a very strong grip here. People needed each other's support to survive against huge odds. This sense of mateship that developed early on still sustains us."
"The first vestiges of style emerged in the buildings that were made from available materials. In Sydney, simple cottages, along the familiar lines of the old country, were built from the beautiful golden sandstone on which the city stands. ......further into the country they used slender limbs of gums as struts and supports. Everything that nature provided had a use, mud for plaster between stones or thin strips of wood, and timber sliced for shingles."
"The sun had never been a problem in the settlers' countries of origin. In Australia it was necessary to protect against it and so the verandah was born - a shelter that very simply expanded the living area and allowed the outdoors to be enjoyed without discomfort."
"Within a generation or so the first settlers had become Australians, a new breed of people who were toughened, sunburnt, hard-working, good humoured and fairly forgiving. They were people who never wasted a thing. Empty cans and crates became kitchen cupboards, bedside tables and clothing chests. Chairs, beds and tables legs were made from hardwood twigs, carefully chosen for appropriate size and, where possible, shape."
"....by being open, inviting, eager to adapt to new ideas and improve their own situation, Australian home-makers have welcomed what is best from and most beautiful from countries all over the world.
Because of a welcoming and open-minded view, this is a country where influences from Japan, Ball, and India co-exist with influences from Spanish South America, and with those from stylish New York, Florence and London as well as from Provence and Tuscany. Yet everything brought here soon acquires the special sense of Australia-ness, the spirit the early settlers bequeathed us. Australian country style arises from its own nature."
The people here have a wonderful relationship with this dry, hot, and beautiful land.
