Climate and culture connections in Australia

‘It is interesting to note that the larger inhabited part of Australia is in those latitudes in the Southern hemisphere which in the Northern produced the great civilisations..., the latitudes between tropical luxuriance and the austerity of the north. As Ford Maddox Ford has pointed out, this belt of culture extends to the far east, along the great trade route, the belt of climate identical with that of the southern half of Australia. It is the climate in which the eye is stimulated and the body is free. When one realises that in the short time of her settlement Australia has produced such a high proportion of painters and musicians, and that she has such a fresh and enthusiastic feeling for the arts, it seems almost certain that she has before her a cultural future of amazing brilliance.’ (Boyd (1953), p. 246). Climate variations, the search for climate understanding, and the desire to dominate climate, have been the catalysts for changes in technology, engineering and economics. Not surprisingly, therefore, climate has also been a major influence on other aspects of Australian culture, and its influence has been recognised by Martin Boyd (see the quote above) and many others. Partridge (1953) even asserted that ‘the different climate’ had been a factor in the development of ‘the Australian language’, noting that ‘Climate and physical surroundings have gradually shaped Australian pronunciation into something decidedly sui generis, quite distinct even from South African’. The different climate has also led to a different approach to climate terms. Baker (1945) lists several indigenous Australian climate words, including ‘The Dry’ and ‘The Wet’ to describe the dry and monsoon seasons. During the 1997/98 El Niño event, the term ‘El Niño’ became equated to ‘drought’ in the media (Kestin 2000), so commentators often used ‘El Niño’ when they meant drought. This appears to have been a uniquely Australian twist. More generally, climate terminology is often used metaphorically in Australia, especially in politics. Thus the following headlines were all used, in political articles, on a single page of The Australian newspaper of 17 October 2001: ‘Weathering an unseasonal damp’; ‘The drought of ideas’; ‘Wets freeze up in Howard’s way’. In this paper the various ways climate has connected with culture in Australia are discussed. Many of these connections have been documented elsewhere, but these discussions are spread across many fields. It seems useful to collate descriptions of these connections, to provide an overview of the way in which culture and climate interact (or have interacted) in Australia. The interactions have not been, of course, all one way. As the science historian Richard Aust. Met. Mag. 54 (2005) 309-319