Emerging Perspectives on Automobilities in Non-Urban Australia: A context for Cruising Country

Abstract

Since the early twentieth century, motor vehicles of all descriptions have been central characters in the settlement, governance and representation of Australia. Just as authors in this volume point to the role automobility has played in colonising Australian terrain, scholars also point to the social inequalities that car cultures have generated.5 Although not necessarily always urban in its intent, automobilities research has tended to focus on the city, the suburban and the high-speed motorways that link these spaces.6 Importantly, automobiUties research, much of which has taken place in Europe, has been shaped by the work of cultural geographers and their attention to places and communities as well as spatial corridors, such as the autobahn and the M5.7 In contrast, relatively Uttle attention has been paid to automobiUty as it occurs in less urbanised environments - clearly one distinctive area where AustraUan scholarship offers unique promise.8 Our application of the term 'automobiUties' is aimed at enfolding the car, the road and the human body into an integrated interdiscipUnary field of research, in recognition of the fact that there are only intersections and overlaps and no clear boundaries between these elements.