Performance of Aboriginal song and dance in the Australian National Maritime Museum in Sydney

Australian literature has also been influenced by the landscape; the works of writers such as Banjo Paterson, Henry Lawson, and Dorothea Mackellar captured the experience of the Australian bush.[290] The character of the nation's colonial past, as represented in early literature, is popular with modern Australians.[260] In 1973, Patrick White was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature, [291] the first Australian to have achieved this.[292] Australian winners of the Man Booker Prize have included Peter Carey and Thomas Keneally; [293] David Williamson, David Malouf, and J. M. Coetzee, who recently became an Australian citizen, are also renowned writers, [294] and Les Murray is regarded as " one of the leading poets of his generation".[295]

Media

The Australian cinema industry began with the 1906 release of The Story of the Kelly Gang, which is regarded as being the world's first feature-length film; [296] but both Australian feature film production and the distribution of British-made features declined dramatically after World War I as American studios and distributors monopolised the industry, [297] and by the 1930s around 95 per cent of the feature films screened in Australia were produced in Hollywood. By the late 1950s feature film production in Australia had effectively ceased and there were no all-Australian feature films made in the decade between 1959 and 1969.[298]

Thanks to initiatives by the Gorton and Whitlam federal governments, the New Wave of Australian cinema of the 1970s brought provocative and successful films, some exploring the nation's colonial past, such as Picnic at Hanging Rock and Breaker Morant, [299] while the so-called " Ocker" genre produced several highly successful urban-based comedy features including The Adventures of Barry McKenzie and Alvin Purple.[300][301][302] Later hits included Mad Max and Gallipoli.[303][304] More recent successes included Shine and Rabbit-Proof Fence.[305][306] Notable Australian actors include Judith Anderson, [307] Errol Flynn, [308] Nicole Kidman, Hugh Jackman, Heath Ledger, Geoffrey Rush, and Cate Blanchett—current joint director of the Sydney Theatre Company.[309][310]

Australia has two public broadcasters (the Australian Broadcasting Corporation and the multicultural Special Broadcasting Service), three commercial television networks, several pay-TV services, [311] and numerous public, non-profit television and radio stations. Each major city has at least one daily newspaper, [311] and there are two national daily newspapers, The Australian and The Australian Financial Review.[311] In 2010, Reporters Without Borders placed Australia 18th on a list of 178 countries ranked by press freedom, behind New Zealand (8th) but ahead of the United Kingdom (19th) and United States (20th).[312] This relatively low ranking is primarily because of the limited diversity of commercial media ownership in Australia; [313] most print media are under the control of News Corporation and Fairfax Media.[314]