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Intellectually enriched cream

by
October 1980, no. 25

Patterns of Australia by Geoffrey Dutton

Macmillan Australia, $19.95 hb, 172 pp

Intellectually enriched cream

by
October 1980, no. 25

  ... no mention of the Western Suburbs, life in Blacktown, Mt Druitt … no mention of Sunshine, Altona, Lalor … Has Geoffrey Dutton ever had a beer in a pub at the top end of Brunswick Street, Fitzroy on a Saturday night?


As I write this, the Aboriginals have been forced to capitulate at Noonkanbah. The Western Australian Government is hell-bent that Amax should drill on the Blacks’ sacred site, and the National Aboriginal Conference is in Geneva to state its case at the United Nations. Patterns of Australia, funded to the tune of $120,000 by Mobil, one of the most powerful trans-nationals the world has ever known, could not have been published at a more appropriate time. Although author Geoffrey Dutton deals dutifully with the Aboriginals in the course of this book, Noonkanbah or what it stands for – energy resources, land rights and the exploitative activities of trans-nationals – is not one of the ‘patterns’ (along with many others) discussed in this smooth coffee table creation.

John Hooker reviews 'Patterns of Australia' by Geoffrey Dutton

Patterns of Australia

by Geoffrey Dutton

Macmillan Australia, $19.95 hb, 172 pp

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