Australian folklore refers to the folklore and urban legends that have evolved in Australia from Aboriginal Australian myths to colonial and contemporary folklore including people, places and events, that have played part in shaping the culture, image and traditions that are seen in contemporary Old Australia.
Definitions Folklore: The traditional beliefs, myths, tales, and practices of a people, transmitted orally. The comparative study of folk knowledge and culture. A body of widely accepted but usually specious notions about a place, a group, or an institution.
Intangible culture:
Traditions or living expressions inherited from our ancestors and passed on to our descendants, such as oral traditions, performing arts, social practices, rituals, festive events, knowledge and practices concerning nature and the universe or the knowledge and skills to produce traditional crafts.
Traditional cultural expressions (TCEs or TECs), also called 'expressions of folklore':
may include music, dance, art, designs, names, signs and symbols, performances, ceremonies, architectural forms, handicrafts and narratives, or many other artistic or cultural expressions.
Collections of Australian Folklore Australian folklore is preserved as part of The Australian Register Unesco Memory of the World Program and the Oral History and Folklore collection of the National Library of Australia.
Playlore Australian Children's Folklore Collection in Museum Victoria, coordinated by Dr June Factor and Dr Gwenda Davey.
Music John Meredith Folklore Collection 1953-1994, held in the National Library of Australia.
Rob and Olya Willis Folklore collection.
O'Connor Collection.
Scott Collection.
Australian Traditional Music Archive.
Australian Folk Songs
Dance Various books on folk dancing in Australia
Spoken word Warren Fahey Collection.
Australian Fairy Tale Society
History of Australian folklore collection
Source:
1905 Old Bush Songs by Banjo Paterson 1952 Bush Music Club (Sydney) 1953 Victorian Folk Lore Society 1958 The Australian Legend by Russel Ward 1963-1975 Australian Tradition magazine edited by Wendy Lowenstein 1964 Folklore Council of Australia 1964 Who Wrote the Ballads? by John Manifold 1967 Folk Songs of Australia and the men and women who sang them by John Meredith 1969 Folklore of the Australian Railwaymen by Patsy Adam-Smith 1974-1996 Australian Folk Trust 1974 Take Your Partners by Shirley Andrews 1979 Australian Folklore Society 1987 A Dictionary of Australian Folklore: Lore, Legends, Myths and Traditions by Bill Wannan 1987 Folklife: Our Living Heritage report proposed the establishment of a National Folklife Centre. The Centre would ‘provide national focus for action to record, safeguard and promote awareness of Australia’s heritage of folklife’. None of the 51 recommendations were implemented. 1987-2018 Australian Folklore journal 1993 The Oxford Companion to Australian Folklore edited by Graham Seal and Gwenda Bede Davey. 2002 Australian Folklore Network established by Professor Graham Seal
Ongoing research into Australian folklore Universities teaching intangible culture –
Curtin University: Australian Folklore Research Unit Deakin University: Intangible Cultural Heritage
The Australian Folklore Network holds an annual conference, the day before the National Folk Festival in Canberra each Easter.
The National Library of Australia sponsors an annual National Folk Fellowship.
Australian Aboriginal mythology
Baijini – Unknown race mentioned in Yolngu folklore. Bora – Sacred Aboriginal initiation ceremony. Many sites still exist throughout Australia. Bunyip – According to legend, they are said to lurk in swamps, billabongs, creeks, riverbeds, and waterholes. Dreamtime – The Dreamtime to Aboriginal Australians is the beginning of time, the creation of knowledge from which their culture began more than 60,000 years ago.
Kata Tjuta – Many Dreamtime stories are told by the Pitjantjatjara people, including a mythical creature that lurks the summit. Lake Mungo remains – Human skeletons found in 1969, believed to have lived between 40,000 and 68,000 years ago are the oldest human remains found in Australia. Rainbow Serpent – It is the sometimes unpredictable Rainbow Serpent, who vies with the ever-reliable Sun, that replenishes the stores of water, forming gullies and deep channels as it slithered across the landscape, allowing for the collection and distribution of water. Yara-ma-yha-who – According to Myth, the creature resembles a red frog-like creature that hides in trees waiting for an unsuspecting victim to consume.
Animals and creatures Bob the Railway Dog – A Dog that was remembered for traveling along the South Australian Railway. Booie Monster – Reports of a monster lurking in a cave first reported in the 1950s Drop bear – Stories of drop bears are frequently related to visiting tourists as a joke. (see also the Queensland tiger)
Gippsland phantom cat – An urban legend centred on the idea that when United States soldiers were based in Victoria during WWII, they released cougars into the wild. Consequently, many sightings of big cats have been reported across Gippsland and even in other parts of Australia. Hook Island Sea Monster – Gigantic, tadpole-like sea monster, Photographed in Stonehaven Bay, Hook Island, Queensland. Megalania – A giant goanna (lizard), generally believed to be extinct. However, there have been numerous reports and rumours of living Megalania in Australia, and occasionally New Guinea, but the only physical evidence that Megalania might still be alive today are plaster casts of possible Megalania footprints made in 1979. Platypus – Native Australian animal which is one of only two mammals that lay eggs (the other being the echidna), and one of the few species of venomous mammals. Due to its unique features the scientist who initially discovered and examined the creature thought it was made of several animals sewn together and deemed it to be a hoax. Red Dog – A dog that was known for his long travels through Western Australia's Pilbara region. Tasmanian tiger – Despite the widely held view that the thylacine (or Tasmanian tiger) became extinct during the 1930s, accounts of alleged sightings in eastern Victoria and parts of Tasmania have persisted to the present day. Yowie (cryptid) – In the modern context, the Yowie is the generic (and somewhat affectionate) term for an unidentified hominid reputed to lurk in the Australian wilderness, analogous to the Himalayan Yeti and the North American Bigfoot. The Dog on the Tuckerbox – an allegorical bullock driver's dog that loyally guarded the man's tuckerbox until its death. It has been immortalized in both a poem and a statue at Gundagai in southern NSW. By way of explanation – tucker means food – so a tuckerbox is a lunch box.
Historical events
Eureka Stockade – A rebellion that took place in Ballarat on 3 December 1854. Ancient Coins Marchinbar Island – Nine coins found, some believing they could have come from the Kilwa Sultanate of east Africa which dates back to the 10th century. Frontier wars – A much less talked about event in Australian history, a war that spanned 146 years which was fought between mostly British settlers and Aboriginal tribes. First Fleet – Name given to the 11 ships that departed England in 1787, with convicts, officers and free settlers to found what became the first European settlement in Australia, Sydney. Frederick escape – A ship hijacked by Australian convicts and used to sail to Chile in 1834. Lachlan Gold Escort robbery – One of the largest ever gold robberies in Australian history. Led by outlaw Ben Hall & Frank Gardiner, Most of the gold was recovered, but some still search the area for treasure. Would equate to about A$13 million in today's value. Nelson robbery - One of the biggest robberies during the Victorian gold rush, in which 8,183 ounces of gold were taken at gunpoint. Kokoda Track campaign - Battles fought in 1942 in what was then the Australian Territory of Papua with Australian and United States forces defeating the Japanese who directly threatened the security of Australia and is considered part of the ANZAC legend. Portuguese discovery of Australia – A much disputed theory that claims early Portuguese navigators were the first Europeans to sight Australia between 1521 and 1524, well before the arrival of Dutch navigator Willem Janszoon in 1606.
Art, film, music and literature Bush ballad – Poems that usually depict Australian life in the outback or bush. Clancy of the Overflow – A poem by Banjo Paterson which admires the Outback. Eternity – A Graffiti tag done more than 500,000 times by Arthur Stace over a 35-year period, of which only 2 original tags remain. Foo was here – Popular Graffiti signature during WW1 that was later adopted by Americans during WW2 and called Kilroy was here. Is said to have Influenced modern Street art.
My Country – More commonly known as "I Love a Sunburnt Country" is a patriotic poem about Australia published in 1908 written by Dorothea Mackellar when she was 19 and homesick living in England. The Lucky Country – Is a book by Donald Horne in which the phrase itself was used as sarcasm within the context of the book but has taken place in Australian culture as a true and meaningful title. The Story of the Kelly Gang – The world's first full-length film. Made in 1906, it ran for more than an hour; it is, however, considered a Lost film, as only 20 minutes of the original film still exist. Rod Ansell – Outback Australian who became the inspiration for the famous film Crocodile Dundee. Streets of Forbes – Folk song about iconic Bushranger Ben Hall. Waltzing Matilda – Extensive folklore surrounds the song and the process of its creation, to the extent that the song has its own museum in Winton, Queensland
People
John Batman – 19th century pioneer, controversial with how he dealt with Indigenous Australians, but nevertheless signed a peaceful agreement with the Wurundjeri known as Batman's Treaty which would eventuality lead to the Foundation of Melbourne
Don Bradman – one of the most renowned cricketers in history, Bradman faced a unique and unexpected conclusion to his illustrious career. Requiring just 4 runs in his final innings to achieve a remarkable test average of 100, he was surprisingly bowled for a duck, leaving him with an average of 99.94. This captivating episode has ingrained itself in Australian folklore, contributing significantly to the mystique surrounding his legacy. It is worth noting that there are unsubstantiated rumours suggesting that he may have attained the elusive 4 runs in another match, potentially miscounted in official records. William Buckley – Australian convict who escaped and became famous for living in an Aboriginal community for more than thirty years. Believed by many Australians to be the source of the saying "You've got Buckley's Chance". Azaria Chamberlain – the name of two-month-old Australian baby who disappeared on the night of 17 August 1980 on a camping trip with her family. Her parents, Lindy Chamberlain and Michael Chamberlain, reported that she had been taken from their tent by a dingo, but they were arrested, tried, and convicted of her murder in 1982. Both were later cleared, and thus the case is best remembered for what was an injustice. The Chamberlains were Seventh-day Adventists and an urban myth had developed that they were required to sacrifice a child as part of their religious beliefs and that the name Azaria meant "sacrifice". These statements are false. John Curtin – 14th prime minister of Australia. Led Australia through World War II when the country was threatened by Japanese invasion and was successful but died in office towards the end of the war. He is considered Australia's greatest prime minister. Dancing Man – unidentified man dancing in the street in Sydney, Australia, after the end of World War II.