English style uniforms the army adopted, the clothes that were worn, and the style of houses. The isolation of Australia also had an effect on her development. There was a lack of technology, money and industry. Without that base, it seemed that Australia would develop rather slowly.World War One was to be a morale raiser for Australia – her first war as a nation. It was seen as a chance to show to the world what Australia could be, the first step in breaking away from the restraints of Britain. In ‘Fly Away Peter’, Australia is seen through the contrasts of the descriptions of Jim’s homeland and descriptions of the locations of the war.“The landscape, the whole great circle of it, grassheads, scrub, water, sky, quite took his breath away.” (Pg 17)“There were emergency roads everywhere, cutting across what must once have been vineyards or beet-fields, metalled for motor vehicles and guns, cobbled or packed with dirt for the men, and they were all in use, with men on foot or on horseback moving in dense columns, mules, horsed wagons, guns.” (Pg 68)This contrast portrays Jim’s disturbance. He is accustomed to his peaceful, quiet surroundings and his birds. The war though, is completely different. He is out of his comfort zone, and in something he has never experienced. As this disturbs Jim, it disturbs the reader, and foreshadows the horrors and troubles Jim faces.Australia is also seen through the contrast of Jim and Ashley’s cultures – Jim living in Australia all his life, and Ashley being educated in England. Ashley is seen as higher class than Jim, because Ashley owns land, received a better education, while Jim is working class, and was educated in a one room school. Ashley’s classical taste in music suggests an education, also.“He had been to school in England, then at Cambridge, then in Germany for a year studying music, and light have passed anywhere on ...
