Communes In Rural Australia: The Movement Since 1970
Condition: SECONDHAND
This is a secondhand book. The jacket image is a photograph of the exact copy we have in stock. This image shows the condition of this book. Further condition remarks are below.
Condition remarks:
Book: Good
Jacket: No dust jacket
Pages: Good
Condition remarks: Condition as shown in image
In the aftermath of the cultural upheaval of the late 1960s, a quiet but radical social experiment took root across the Australian countryside — the communal living movement. Communes in Rural Australia: The Movement Since 1970 chronicles the rise and evolution of intentional communities that emerged as thousands of Australians sought alternatives to mainstream society, planting roots in remote valleys and bushland to build new ways of living, working, and relating to one another. Drawing on extensive fieldwork and firsthand accounts, Margaret Munro-Clark presents a rigorous and sympathetic portrait of these communities, mapping their ideological foundations, internal structures, and the daily realities of communal life across a turbulent era of Australian social history. Munro-Clark argues with scholarly precision that the commune movement was far more than a fleeting countercultural trend — it was a sustained and complex social phenomenon that challenged prevailing assumptions about property, family, labour, and community. Her meticulous research illuminates the tension between utopian idealism and the hard pragmatics of communal survival, revealing how these groups navigated conflict, isolation, and changing political climates. Published in association with the Ian Buchan Fell Research Centre, this landmark study remains an indispensable resource for anyone seeking to understand the deeper currents of alternative culture in modern Australia — and the enduring human desire to build the world anew.
Author: Margaret Munro-Clark
Format: Paperback
Published: 1986, Hale & Iremonger
Genre: Australian history
Condition remarks:
Book: Good
Jacket: No dust jacket
Pages: Good
Condition remarks: Condition as shown in image
In the aftermath of the cultural upheaval of the late 1960s, a quiet but radical social experiment took root across the Australian countryside — the communal living movement. Communes in Rural Australia: The Movement Since 1970 chronicles the rise and evolution of intentional communities that emerged as thousands of Australians sought alternatives to mainstream society, planting roots in remote valleys and bushland to build new ways of living, working, and relating to one another. Drawing on extensive fieldwork and firsthand accounts, Margaret Munro-Clark presents a rigorous and sympathetic portrait of these communities, mapping their ideological foundations, internal structures, and the daily realities of communal life across a turbulent era of Australian social history. Munro-Clark argues with scholarly precision that the commune movement was far more than a fleeting countercultural trend — it was a sustained and complex social phenomenon that challenged prevailing assumptions about property, family, labour, and community. Her meticulous research illuminates the tension between utopian idealism and the hard pragmatics of communal survival, revealing how these groups navigated conflict, isolation, and changing political climates. Published in association with the Ian Buchan Fell Research Centre, this landmark study remains an indispensable resource for anyone seeking to understand the deeper currents of alternative culture in modern Australia — and the enduring human desire to build the world anew.