Carrington: Community of difference?

Newcastle is a city redolent with images. Perhaps the most dominant of these is of a male industrial working environment deriving from the days of the 'coally seaport', while other aspects of its identity, such as the female and the Aboriginal, are suppressed and obscured (Dunn et al., 1995). Another recurrent image is of profound community, of solidarity. This is evident in the 'Our Town' epithet applied to numerous local businesses. Such an image is portrayed in the cartoon by Eggleston, where the SS Newcastle is under siege from economic, political and physical forces, where the (all male) inhabitants, clinging together in adversity, are ignored by the Canberra rescue service (Fig. 1). Such imagery is demonstrative of community but it is largely negative. The community is parochial, defensive and whinging, complaining of discrimination against it by 'them', the authorities in Sydney -and Canberra, yet expecting 'them' to be a saviour when in distress. It is also a community which is partial and exclusionary, consisting solely of the Anglo males in their sinking industrial ship (Dunn, -.1992).