Australia

Earliest Networks in Australia

Prior to European invasion, the Australian continent was populated by a large and intricate network of approximately 600 indigenous clan areas, or nations, with kinship relationships between each. These networks of Aboriginal peoples were fundamentally connected through their relationships to the land or country. Traditional land is understood to be more than territory and geography, but an entity in which indigenous peoples have a spiritual relationship because “country” gives life and provides all that is required to sustain communities. It is, therefore, to be respected, and there is much to be learned from it. Knowledge of country has been passed on orally through languages and stories. As many of the hundreds of languages and dialects are now extinct, there is concern for how traditional knowledge will be preserved. Projects such as Traditional Knowledge Revival Pathways (TKRP) are urgently seeking to record the knowledge of Aboriginal elders so that such understandings about indigenous peoples' social networks and relationships to their land can be shared and applied, especially to contemporary environmental practices.

British colonization imposed a different kind of network, one that was more outward looking and considered Australia an extension of the British Commonwealth and “Mother England.” The dominance of this network remains, as seen in Australia's membership to the Commonwealth (or what was previously known as the British Commonwealth or British Empire), the continued and contentious presence of the Union Jack (the flag of the United Kingdom) on the Australian flag, and the Queen of England's role as head of state. More recently, there has been a shift in understanding Australia to be part of Asia, due it its close proximity to this region.

The formation of a network of states has been part of a political and administrative agenda since British settlement. Separate, self-governing colonies were federated in 1901 to form the Commonwealth of Australia, consisting of six states. This desire to connect far-flung and remote areas of the country has since continued and can be seen in the current push to establish a national broadband network that is estimated be accessible to 90 percent of Australian homes and businesses, with the remaining 10 percent served by wireless and satellite technologies. While Australia was considered one of the early settlers of the World Wide Web in the 1990s, the national broadband network is long overdue; even upon its completion, Australia will lag behind other countries that have made significant and sustained investments in their broadband infrastructure, such as Japan and South Korea.

Proximity, Mateship, and Marginalization

The combating of distance through networks exists alongside a spirit of mateship and egalitarianism. The concept of mateship refers to an ethos of helping and receiving help from each other in times of need on an individual basis, or in terms of participation in local communities. Implicit in how Australian identity is represented is that the nation and its people are connected by social networks, whether personal or collective, that bind them geographically and ethically. Furthermore, the notion of mateship depicts these networks as egalitarian and accessible to all.

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