Australophile
An Australophile (or Ozophile[1]) is someone with an appreciation or love of Australia, which may include its history, geography, language (especially Australian English), culture and popular media.
The rise of Australophilia can be linked to the emergence of Australian films and tourism campaigns in the United States throughout the 1980s.
[13] Such misconceptions have remained as a result of popular media and advertisements, including tourism posters, Australian Olympic ceremonies and aircraft cabins.
[19] One common linguistic stereotype includes the assumption that most Australians use words like "mate" and "bloody" in everyday conversation.
[21] These have been reinforced by tourism campaigns and popular media promoting certain modes of Australian English since the 1980s, such as Paul Hogan’s popularisation of "g’day"[20] and Barry Humphries’ use of colloquial idioms[21] like "as dry as a kookaburra’s khyber".
[20] One common cultural stereotype includes the mythos of a mineral-rich but lazy Australian working class, connected to Donald Horne’s 1960s reference of Australia as "the Lucky Country".
[23] Like linguistic stereotypes, these cultural stereotypes have been reinforced by tourism campaigns and popular media, resulting in the "distinctive way of life" popularising the Australian outback lifestyle in Crocodile Dundee[23] and the contemporary urban lifestyle shown in the Australian soap opera Neighbours.
[28] This interest has been fuelled by conservation efforts for some of Australia's natural assets, with more than three million people annually visiting the Greater Blue Mountains Area as of 2007,[29] and representation in popular media, like the Mad Max franchise.
[31] This has created an Australian identity built on its ruralism rather than its urbanism, which exists at odds with Australia's status as one of the most urbanised countries in the world.
[43] Iconic symbols like kangaroos and ockers have emerged from the outback, which in turn have been commodified by Australian tourism advertisements.
This includes films like Crocodile Dundee,[45] TV shows like Neighbours,[46] singers like Shannon Noll,[47] and actors like Hugh Jackman.
[48] Crocodile Dundee is further credited with packaging the Australian outback and its wildlife as an exotic yet tameable commodity for non-Australian Australophiles to consume.
[51] Conversely, Strictly Ballroom was set in a more urban locale that was "recognisably Australian, but… conceived by the film-makers as an imaginary location".
