AustLit

'In the mid-nineteenth century, the frontiers of Queensland and British Columbia provided a stage on which British men could enact or perform manliness. Encouraged by a range of cultural productions, thousands of British men went to these colonies to act out the courage, stoicism and perseverance demanded by the cult of manliness. In so doing they hoped to achieve their manly independence. From the exploits of these men sprang the frontier myths that are so popular in modern Australian and Canadian society. However, for many men, the frontier could be a troubling and unsettling place, and for them the pursuit of manly independence could be problematic. Their stories demonstrate that manliness could be a hollow ideal, dependent on and varying according to social and physical conditions. The Queensland and British Columbia frontiers were places where 'manliness' was an important ideal but a problematic practice.' [Author's abstract]