The real Australia — Reading Notes

The Histrionic Faculty and the Australian Girl

Buchanan devotes considerable attention to what he calls the 'histrionic faculty' in Australian women, a quality he considers essential to social grace. He notes that 'the man is seldom an adept in these matters,' floundering 'amid uncongenial surroundings,' while the Australian girl 'will adapt herself with great readiness to any set of circumstances.' This adaptability extends to politics, where Buchanan identifies two distinct types of political women. The first, and more numerous, is the 'dilettante, the feminine dabbler,' who canvasses expertly but 'rarely comes into prominence except at election times.' The second is 'the intensely serious, aggressive type,' determined to 'regenerate the world by the deus ex machina of the ballot box.' Buchanan's tone is observational rather than prescriptive, noting that this latter type's 'opinion of the opposite sex is quite unfit for publication—nevertheless it is often published.'

Aestheticism, Theosophy, and the Higher Life

Another feminine type Buchanan examines is the devotee of aestheticism, which he claims 'usually go together' with theosophy in Australia. He confesses himself unable to discover 'what difference, if any, exists between the two.' The Anglican curate and young non-Conformist preacher, he observes, have 'but a modified social success' compared to the man who 'can talk mysticism, and quote Plato or Edwin Arnold.' If such a man can also play the violin, 'he leaps at once into a blaze of popularity.' Buchanan identifies an 'underlying principle' in this leaning: 'a yearning for the higher life,' not expressed in common words but implied. This passage reveals his interest in the intersection of imported spiritual trends and local social dynamics, though he stops short of deeper analysis.

Method and Scope: A Resident's Perspective

Buchanan's preface establishes his work as a deliberate alternative to the travelogue. He acknowledges that books of this kind 'are usually written by travellers of more or less distinction,' and that the 'easiest thing possible' is for a journalist to rush across to Japan or Siberia and return with a manuscript that 'will exhaust the subject.' His own approach, by contrast, is to write 'about Australia as a resident Australian.' The table of contents reveals a systematic structure: chapters on 'Virtues and Vices,' 'Society,' 'Journalism,' 'The Game of Politics,' and portraits of figures like Adam Lindsay Gordon and four prime ministers. Buchanan's claim that 'the living world should be at least as worthy of interpretation as the dead world' signals his commitment to contemporary observation, even as he apologizes for treatment that may prove 'altogether inadequate to the theme.'

Readers approaching The Real Australia should note that Buchanan's evidence is drawn from urban and literary circles rather than the outback or rural life. His focus on women's roles, journalism, and political culture reflects an early twentieth-century urban perspective. The book is best read as a series of essays rather than a comprehensive survey, with each chapter offering a snapshot of a particular facet of Australian life as seen by a sympathetic but critical insider.

There’s something touching about Buchanan’s insistence on the real over the breezy, the lived-in over the sketched. It reminded me of how Lady Mary Wortley Montagu wrote letters from Constantinople—not as a tourist, but as someone who actually stayed, watched, and wondered. Both felt the pull between what visitors see and what residents quietly endure. I keep thinking about that gap, long after closing either book. The Letters of the Right Honourable Lady M—y W—y M—e Written during Her Travels in Europe, Asia and Africa to Persons of Distinction, Men of Letters, &c. in Different — Background and Themes holds that same tender patience.