This thesis discusses the impact of the counterculture on Australian cinema in the late 20thcentury through the work of the Sydney Underground Film group, Ubu. This group, active between 1965 -1970, was a significant part of an underground counter culture, to which many young Australians subscribed. As a group, Ubu was more than a rat bag assemblage of University students. It was an antipodean aspect of an ongoing artistic and political movement that began with the European avant-garde at the beginning of the 20th century and that radically transformed artistic conventions in theatre, painting, literature, photography and film. Three purposes underpin this thesis: firstly to track the art historical links between a European avant-garde heritage and Ubu. Experimental film is a genre that is informed by cross art form interrelations between theatre, painting, literature, photography and film and the major modernist aesthetic philosophies of the last century. Ubu's revolutionary aesthetic approaches included political resistance and the involvement of audiences in the production of art. Their creative wellspring drew from: Alfred Jarry, Dadaism, Surrealism, Futurism, Fluxus, Conceptual and Pop art. This cross fertilization between the arts is critical to understanding not only the Australian experimental movement but the history of contemporary image making. The second purpose is to fill a current void of research about early Australian Experimental film. This is a significant gap given it was a national movement with many international connections. The counterculture movement also contains many major figures in Australian art history. These individuals played their parts in the Sydney Push, Oz magazine and the activities of the Yellow House and have since become important multi arts practitioners and commentators. Thirdly, the thesis attempts to evaluate Ubu's political and social agenda for the democratization of film appreciation through their objectives of: production, exhibition, distribution and debate of experimental film both nationally and internationally. Ultimately the group would succeed in these objectives and in winning the war on repressive censorship laws. Their influence has informed the practice of many of Australia's current film heavy weights. Two key films have been selected for analysis, It Droppeth as the Gentle Rain (1963) and Newsfront (1978). The first looks forward to Ubu's contemporary practices and political agenda while the second demonstrates their longer term influences on mainstream cinema.

Thesis (PhD) -- University of Western Sydney, Nepean, 1998. / Thesis submitted in fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy (1998), School of Employment Relations, University of Western Sydney, Nepean. Bibliography : p. 232-257.

Thesis (Ph. D.) -- University of Western Sydney, Nepean, 1998. / Submitted to the Faculty of Education, The University of Western Sydney, in fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy April 1998. Bibliography : p. 331-384.

Thesis (Ph. D) -- University of Western Sydney, Nepean, 1999. / "An enquiry into the relationship between place and space, and the writiing life, with reference to journals and poetry written by Diane Fahey, and to works by Eavan Boland, Annie Dillard, and May Sarton" -- p. ii. Thesis submitted in total fulfilment of the requirements of the degree of Doctor of Philosophy, School of Communication and Media Studies, University of Western Sydney, Nepean. Bibliography : p. 259-264.

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published_or_final_version / Philosophy / Master / Master of Philosophy

There have been recent contributions to the world city literature and the new economic geography literature that have focused on city connectivity and practicebased research, through concepts such as city actor-networks, relational geographies and project-led enquiries. As this literature is developing, this thesis aims to analyse and contribute to it by providing an empirical focus in two main themes that have so far been marginalised in these literatures – the city of Sydney, and the cultural industries. An alternative conceptualisation of world cities, namely ‘new urbanism’, which employs Actor-Network Theory, will be utilised in this thesis to ask the question, what are the actants of Sydney’s cultural industries (specifically the film and TV production industry), and how are they enrolled to create the spacing and timing of Sydney’s actor-networks? By answering this question, this thesis will contribute to the knowledge in three ways: theoretically, by adding weight to the alternative concepts of new urbanism and relational economic geographies; empirically, by studying two themes that have been hitherto underdeveloped in the existing literature; and methodologically, through new developing empirical agendas that cover the quantification of Sydney’s world city network and ANT-inspired ethnographic, ‘project-based’ enquiry.

This thesis discusses the growing body of work on transnational social movement theory. Transnational social movement theory is an attempt to adapt social movement theory to the changing nature of international relations. To further this theory, I test the hypothesis that "a transnational social movement has caused drug law reforms at the local and state level". To test this hypothesis I undertake a case study of one local and one national drug law reform. The drug laws in the state of New South Wales, Australia were reformed in 1999 to allow heroin addicts to use a medical center to inject their drug. The second case study is of Bolivia's national coca laws where the government allows a small amount of coca to be grown for legal traditional consumption. I conclude that a transnational social movement has had little impact on these law reforms but perhaps in the future such a movement will begin to have a greater impact on local and national drug laws around the world. To become more effective, I suggest that the transnational movement should establish a set of goals, strengthen networks among activists, develop insurgent consciousness, develop an innovative repertoire of contention, and it needs to take advantage of the political opportunity structure when it opens.

Master of Arts / This work is the history of a particularly singular and strong human enterprise. Until the advent of several more recent interpretative works, Australian transport historiography has heavily emphasised engineering and operational development without examining the contextual social and economic forces. The Manly Ferry, with its unique contribution to the history of Sydney's development as a suburban city, provides a distinctive microcosmic example with which to illustrate the evolution of an urban society - with its emphasis on mobility - in the wake of the industrial revolution.

The aim of the study was to develop an in-depth understanding of the migration experiences of the Italian community of Australia, with a case study of the regional Friulan community of Sydney. For the ways in which people identify themselves at different times and in different environments may not always be consistent. The purpose of the study was to add to the exploration of the diversity, cultural variety and richness cultural communities have brought to Australia. The study set out to fulfill an important function in adding to the accounts of the diversity of ethnic groups in Australia, their structure and cultural backgrounds and the values of family members. Since culture is concerned with meaning, there is of course a very close relationship between culture and language, through which kin relationships, obligations and duties are expressed and appropriate behaviour defined. It is that meaning and relationship that led me to investigate the Italian and Friulan communities. The study took on the form of an ethnography enabling me, the researcher, to participate in order to develop an in depth understanding of the experiences of the Italian migrants, in particular the Friulan community. The data was collected by using key informant interviewing. The participants were encouraged to freely reflect on their past and present experiences to enable them to make a comparative analysis of their experiences in Australia and in their country of origin. This enabled the migrants to take on the role of culturally knowledgeable informants supplying information which was significant to them and which reflected their perceptions of their life experiences. The data has been faithfully recorded to represent the immigrant's point of view. The study revealed that many of the first and second-generation are highly involved with their Italian heritage and operate comfortably with a bicultural ethnic identity. The second generation have reconstructed the Italian-Australian family, thus changing the Italian community and providing links between the Italian, the Anglo-Australian and the other ethnic communities. Ethnicity is continually negotiated and is a constant source of transformation for people of immigrant background. If Italian-Australians continue to associate, both through family and cultural practices then the Italian-Australian identity will continue. The big question is what will happen in the third and fourth Italian-Australian generation. It is here that the question of ethnic and national identity becomes highly relevant. Cultural diversity presents challenging issues for Australia: what it means to be an Australian; the relationship between national and personal identities; identifying and working in both the cohesive and divisive forces in a multicultural society; and the form and flavour of a future republic. None of these issues are new, yet all are of immediate concern, and the symbolic importance of the approach of the twenty-first century invests them with particular meaning.