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IN DECEMBER 2005, AUSTRAU A WAS CAUGHT IN A MEDIA spotlight as disturbing images were beamed around the world from the suburbs of Sydney. The world watched as shirtless men punched fists menacingly at the cameras. With Australian flags waving in the background, one man told the world he was standing up for a way of life that "our grandfathers fought for." The world listened to Australians' yelling "You're not welcome, this is our land" and "get the hell out." Some of these individuals were affected by alcohol and the vast majority seemed caught up in the "mob" mentality: a brutal righteousness of numbers that demands a call to arms which, in this instance, became known as the Cronulla riots. The shocking images seemed, initially, downright un-Australian. But then the familiar cry of "Aussie, Aussie, Aussie," reminiscent of a fun day out at the cricket, shamefully cemented the images in the "typicality" of the white Australian male or "larrikin" as he is often fondly referred to. The clashes in Cronulla and its surrounding suburbs were labeled by the press as "race riots," and the race issue soon overshadowed other factors rhat may have featured in the turbulence, specifically the apparent inherent violence in the nature of the Australian Larrikin.
"Larrikin" is an often used endearing reference to the Australian male and, in this form, bears a striking resemblance to the Legend that emerged along with a local literature late in the nineteenth century. The word larrikin was used openly and frequently in relation to Australian media magnate Kerry Packer (following his death on 26 December 2005) for the purpose, it would seem, of helping the general public to forget that Packer had been an affluent businessman who lived an opulent lifestyle. Some of his friends and a number of journalists were keen to remind us that Packer was, after all, a likeable larrikin. In fact "large numbers of respectable Australian men have always liked to feel that they are really larrikins at heart" (Waters 305). But the definition of the Australian slang word incorporates the less palatable term "hooligan" and, according to Sean Glynn, larrikins "were drawn from the lowest social strata in Australian cities" (230). Whilst the Australian "bloke" is far more than a...