Amy Clarke

The Brisbane 2032 Olympics and Paralympics signal a shift from mega-city hosts to a more regional and sustainable approach to staging the Games. Uniquely in a Summer Olympic bid, Brisbane’s application was based on the hosts being from the broader Australian region of south-east Queensland. In appointing Brisbane, International Olympic Committee President Thomas Bach outlined the importance of sustainability and economic responsibility, and recognised the long-term regional and national strategies around development in Australia. In this changing global sports ecosystem, this paper examines the legacies of Atlanta 1996, a smaller-scale Olympics through media coverage of this edition of the Games, including general and sports reporting. The findings outline areas for the Brisbane 2032 organisers to consider in delivering an Olympics that is sustainable for the hosts. The Games were most effective for fulfilling elements related to sports legacies and the economic focus on making a profit, or not requiring government funding. There are considerable positives in the Olympic stadium still being in use, along with the aquatic centre, and the continued popularity of the public space and broader developments based around the Centennial Olympic Park.

Relationships are fundamental to our lives and the living, and key to all forms of existence - ontologically, ethically, and spiritually. They represent a sense of interconnection, belonging, attachment, and kinship. They weave together a tapestry of people, things, and more-than-human connections--networks that are in a mutual relationship with heritage and processes of heritage-making. In this paper, we reflect on the idea of relationships. Taking inspiration from our experiences as co-chairs and presenters of the ICOMOS GA2023 Relationships Theme, we use 'relationships' as a concept to frame and facilitate a deeper understanding of their meanings in our everyday lives and heritage-making processes. We use the concept to explore relationships across three distinct papers presented at the Scientific Symposium. The case studies illuminate the fundamental interconnections among people, places, and 'things', encompassing lost relationships, the significance of nuturing strong relationships, and the value of developing new ones.

Big Things first appeared in Australia in the 1960s, beginning with the Big Scotsman (1962) in Medindie, South Australia, the Big Banana (1964) in Coffs Harbour, New South Wales, and the Big Murray Cod (1968) in Tocumwal, NSW.

These structures were inspired by earlier North American examples, such as Lucy the Elephant (1882) in New Jersey, and several big doughnuts in California.

While they differed in subject matter, all aimed to attract the attention of passing motorists: in the 1950s–1960s, private car ownership had soared and highway construction spread.

Towns and regions across Australia, New Zealand and North America used oversized landmarks to get travellers to stop, take a photo and hopefully spend money at local businesses.

Sport plays an important role in the conception of Australian national identity. Much of the scholarly work on this topic has concentrated on professional, high-profile sports and athletes. In this article, we draw attention to a highly symbolic aspect of popular sporting culture—school sports houses—and the prominent historical figures and motifs that they project through their team names, mascots and colours. School sports houses are potent examples of banal nationalism, whereby elements of Australianness are reinforced through the tradition of school athletics and swimming carnivals. Here, we highlight the overlap between the school-based agenda of encouraging group identity and the broader notion of the nation as an imagined community. Using a comprehensive dataset of Queensland high school sport houses in 1969 and 2023, we observe several trends, such as the persistence of houses named after colonial explorers and the disparity between houses with women’s and men’s namesakes. We consider the role of school sports houses as “identity primers”, or scripts, that encourage schoolchildren to identify with specific historic figures, landforms, animal totems, character traits and other qualities as indicators of the region and nation in which they live.

The highly visible yet poorly studied phenomenon of roadside colossi—oversized commercial buildings and statues in the shape of everyday objects, referred to in this article as Big Things— has often been dismissed as a kitschy by-product of American postwar consumerism and car culture. There are no universal definitions or typologies for this form of material culture, nor is there a sufficiently global history that explains the origin, spread and contemporary popularity of these landmarks. In this article, I address these gaps in the discourse, drawing attention to the rich yet largely untapped theoretical underpinnings of Big Things. In doing so, I highlight the potential for further study of these landmarks as material evidence of broader socio-cultural impulses, particularly in communities across North America and Australia, where Big Things can be found in their greatest numbers.

Nation-themed retail, hospitality and entertainment spaces are a valuable yet underu-tilised resource for the analysis of national stereotypes and dominant brand narratives. When such spaces operate outside the borders of the nation upon which they are themed, they can be interpreted as presenting a 'stage' national identity: one that is understood as being unreal, and yet simultaneously hyperreal. This article explores the visual signifiers (e.g. décor, displayed products and promotional materials) and consumption opportunities (e.g. food, drink and cultural events) at 110 Scottish-themed pubs, bars and restaurants located outside of Scotland's borders. In doing so, it highlights how national historical narratives, symbols and motifs are commercialised by and for people outside that nation, often to the extent that outdated views are perpetuated, stereotypes are exacerbated, and the signifiers of other nations are absorbed and/or hybridised. This has potential impacts inside said nation, too: on the tourism industry, food and drink sector, and on the nation's ability to attract and retain the interest of outside investment and skilled migrants, among other things. This research thus draws attention to the complex role(s) of nation-themed spaces in overseas settings, particularly in mediating and – in some instances, contradicting – the collective and commercial identities and/or official (government-endorsed) brands of the nation being displayed for consumption.