University of Canberra. This thesis is available in print format from the University of Canberra Library.

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1 University of Canberra This thesis is available in print format from the University of Canberra Library. If you are the author of this thesis and wish to have the whole thesis loaded here, please contact the University of Canberra Library at Your thesis will then be available on the www providing greater access.

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3 This thesis considers varied representations of landscape in Australian narrative film and designed landscape. Landscape is taken as an active concept that combines the associative meanings of place and the dynamism of space. Sixteen film and designed landscapes are examined to derive their landscape sources, forms and ideas, using the methodology of 'contextual poetics', Each of these landscapes is considered under a specific theme: landscape as delight, absence, nation or hope. In addition to detailing specific landscape responses by the designers of the examined landscapes, this project aims to contribute to an enhanced conversation about the effective, just practice of landscape architecture. The topic derives from a question central to landscape architectural practice in a post-colonial context, such as Australia. In a cultural setting where no single, agreed definition of landscape is allowed by the conditions of its history, which versions do practitioners of landscape architecture take up? What should be their limits, where are their inspirations and whose landscape narratives are ignored in these decisions?

4 Title Abstract Certificate of Authorship Table of Contents Acknowledgements Introduction Chapter 1 Landscape - 'the most expert witness of all' Commentary Chapter 2 The 'lie' of the landscape Commentary Chapter 3 An 'odd' cinema Commentary Chapter 4 'A work of art is a lie'

5 Commentary What is "Narrative? The Grammar of Film and Landscape Worlds of theory My Termite: 'Contextual Poetics" is a Landscape Quite Like a Film? Chapter 5 Landscape as delight Glebe Park, Canberra Oscar and Lucinda Alice Springs Desert Park, Alice Springs The Sentimental Bloke Afterword Chapter 6 Landscape as absence Kangaroo Reid Babe: Street The Gallant in Wilcannia, Sheep NSW Pig Bent Street, Fox Studios, Sydney Afterword Chapter 7 Landscape as nation The Overlanders Place of the People Design Comepetition, Canberra International Gateway, Melbourne Mallboy Afterword Chapter 8 Landscape is hope Folly for Mrs Macquarie, Sydney The Back of Beyond Amy Reconciliation Bridge Walk, Sydney Conclusion References Filmography List of illustrations

6 During the four years I took for this project, the world has seemed to become a more uncertain place, but perhaps I just mean that, as Australians, we have come a little closer to realities we do not like. Now, even more so, I am deeply grateful to have benefited from the advantages that being an Australian can confer. For all the perversity of its history, Australia has offered me the ideal conditions for this project: an Australian Postgraduate Scholarship, strong collections of archival and contemporary research material (collections of Cinemedia, ScreenSound Australia and the National Library of Australia) and all its breathtaking landscapes. As a white Australian, I know that my privilege has come, in very real ways, at the historic and continuing expense of Aboriginal people. For that I am sorry. Those who have written a PhD. understand that it is a solitary process akin to being cast out into rough sea in what seems a very small boat. Well-wishers gather on the shores in varying degrees of confidence and anxiety. Mine, for whom I am deeply grateful, were Nicholas Brown, Imogen Boden-Brown. Stephen Moulding, my gracious mother Anne MacDonald, my loyal brother David Boden. my good friends Heracles Lang. Gina Pinkas. Michelle Timbs. Jacqueline Dickes, Alison Smith, Debbie Sagenschnitter, Sue McGrath, Marivic Wyndham, Jay Arthur and Peter Read, my patient and thoughtful supervisor Professor Ken Taylor and my delightful students and colleagues at the University of Canberra. Stephen Moulding generously provided his place by the sea where much of the early writing was done and was not averse, at times, to both securing and rocking the boat. Nicholas Brown, because he is insightful, enduring and kindness itself swam out to right me on many occasions. Our little daughter Imogen, whom we could not be without, joined him for a taste of this adult sea-world (quite rightly she has now decided to become a hairdresser). Like many people humbled by the need for rescue. I was rarely as grateful as I should have been and still they kept on coming! Now I am back at shore, my sea journey might seem lame to others. But all who saw me struggle in my boat know what a very big task it was to me. July 2002