H Carey, Believing in Australia: A Cultural History of Religions

Carey states that the basic intention of this 'nonspecialist' study '...has been to examine religious cultures as they have reflected cultural transformations in Australian society (p. x)'. She thereby implies that religion has been a secondary or dependent variable in Australian history, and also a rather puny one. Religious culture in Australia, she asserts, 'has been characterised by transience and transformation', and was 'achieved by the action of the waves of contact and migrant experiences, from first European occupation to postcolonial society, on the beach of the Australian experience.' Aboriginal religions, by contrast, are religions of the land and, it seems, religions in a proper and strong sense.