Jim Davidson discusses three books that explore the evolution of language.
A more typical essay is that on the bush. The book points out that the term — so Australian — first appeared in South African English, adapting a Dutch word. It notes that it was a flattening concept, equivalent to wilderness, blind to any Indigenous presence or land use. It became the core of an emerging Australian identity (despite heavy urbanisation) since it was there that this country was most different from England. Not surprisingly, Laugesen deems it “the most productive word in the country’s lexicon.”