Review

Tristan Clark— Orstralia: A Punk History 1974-1989

By Stephen A. Russell
The Saturday Paper
July 16th, 2024

Tristan Clark’s exhaustive but never exhausting thrash through Australia’s punk history rocks – from its first explosion in Brisbane, defying the crushing reign of then premier Joh Bjelke-Petersen, through to Sydney’s seething Darlinghurst, where Radio Birdman commandeered upstairs at the Oxford Hotel, and on to Melbourne’s Tiger Lounge.

Teeming with firsthand insights from the good, the bad and the could-go-either-way-after-a-few-pints, Orstralia is a sacrilegious bible to a brimstone-bashing movement.

Clark scoffs at proclamations of the death of a sound that endures today and excoriates those who police which bands count and whose voice is included. From lesser-known bands, such as Thrush & the Cunts, through to the aptly named Massappeal, almost everyone is here.

Blasting out from under the boot of the state, The Saints flourished in Brisbane, although fellow rebel Ed Wreckage of The Leftovers noted that after dark, “The cops were out hunting for teenagers”. Irena Luckus of Xero, nee Zero, says Bjelke-Petersen’s mob “were bent on holding back the sea … who dared to see the world differently”.

Intercity rivalry is amusing. Speaking of Melbourne, one New South Wales punter tells The Age that “Punk will never reach you … Nobody down there’s got the guts.” They did, including Boys Next Door mutating into post-punk form The Birthday Party. “I was just angry,” Nick Cave relays to artist Ben Juniper of his crowd-fighting days. “I wanted to hurt people.”

Also in Melbourne, mighty Gash guitarist Liz insists their name drew less attention than the hardcore band predominantly featuring women. British photographer Norman Parkinson flew to Sydney to snap Carmel Strelein of the Screaming Abdabs and her swooping eyeliner, which circled her shaven skull.

The late Michael Gudinski established ill-fated record label Suicide – a subsidiary of Mushroom – to (unsuccessfully) cash in, releasing only three singles. But Mushroom’s biggest punk disaster came on the eve of signing punk band X. The last surviving original member, Steve Lucas, recalls leaving the wild party early, only to discover that Ian Rilen and Cathy Green started “pulling all the gold records off the walls and throwing them around”. The deal was dropped.

Soaked with beer, sweat and spit, Orstralia and Clark’s companion volume, Orstralia: A Punk History 1990–1999, are also a eulogy to many musicians lost along the way. As Wreckage, who died in 2021, reflected of the heroin flooding in with American troops on leave from Vietnam: “There was never any pot … so everybody went to smack. It left a huge trail of misery, and we’re all still dealing with it.”

Their names live on, with help from Clark.