The gothic communities here are generally fairly well integrated, with large social circles in every major city revolving around clubs and such. There are also goths in a great majority of large rural centres (hiding away from the local yokel population) – a large number of which have little exposure to the world scene and consider gothic to be something more stereotypical, like Manson and NIN. While perhaps sparser that their overseas counterparts, the gothic groups here still organise regular small concerts and private gatherings or special club nights.

There are quite a few gothic clubs in every major capital city (probably none outside of them) although they only usually last a few years apiece (recycled and reopened in new venues under new names). One of the longest running is ‘The Abyss’ in Melbourne, (some pics shown here during a performance by ‘The Baroness and Loveliesbleeding.’) Australian goth clubs are as equally varied as the people–mixed proportions of clubbers and ‘hard-core’ goths. They tend to discourage non-goths from coming into the clubs (to outright barring them) because of the amount of hostility that many ‘jock’ Australians feel toward the gothic community–viewing them as anything from dangerous, to gay (which many ‘jocks’ strongly dislike). However, the clubs themselves are probably atypical the world over–the majority of the music listened to tends to be fairly diverse. However, over 99% of the clubs only play mainstream gothic and industrial music, from fairly standard ‘commercial’ gothic bands (NIN, Frontline Assembly, The Cure etc)–there is almost no coverage of labels like Projekt or Cold Meat Industry. For people interested in these other musics, there is an even smaller sub-sub-culture.

Something of the Australian character peeks out through the particular face of Australian gothic and has rendered it in a uniquely ‘down to earth’ style. While there is the typical variation within the subculture (from those that only dress up to go out to goth clubs and never ‘get into’ the scene, to those ‘hard-core’ goths who see it as a total way of life) the Australian goth has several qualities which clearly define it (this has been pointed out to me repeatedly by those from other countries in addition to those Australians whom I have met, who have travelled extensively.) For Australian goths, the gothic lifestyle represents something between ideal and an idea–something to integrate into your life, but only up to a point. Most people who go out to goth clubs here will still do things that are really ‘un-gothic’ in their normal life, and joke to one another about those that take the scene ‘too seriously’.

There is the general attitude that there is a lot of good and a lot of fun to be had in the gothic lifestyle, but that a lot of the extreme ideas in the scene border on the ridiculous. While there are still those who engage in a total emersion into the scene, the majority of people view them as either emotionally disturbed or too out-of-touch with reality. For Australians, (the great majority of which are non-religious) a lot of the extreme examples of gothic don’t track with the practicalities of everyday living (not to mention enjoyment). Australians tend to like the dress style, the music and the company, but few think it is a reason to conform to certain ideas about the world. Many even consider the idea of stereotypical gothic ideas (the dress, the philosophy) to be counter to what the scene is all about.

The Australian landscape, weather and architecture is often decidedly “un-gothic” (which is interesting considering ‘Queen of the Damned’ is being filmed here) and this has often prompted people in the scene to view the idea of ‘gothic’ in a new light. Many people in the scene still go out of their way to scratch around and find parks, old buildings and suburbs to live near that reflect what they see as the gothic ‘ideal’ (or what conforms with their version of the images they see in books and television) but most people find that they rework their understanding of gothic in the vast spaces and loneliness of the Australian landscape–huge areas of land that you can go to are unoccupied and only help to reinforce the philosophies and elements that make up the Gothic mind set. Australia is not only far away from other countries; it is a huge landmass with a low population–isolation is par of the course.

Australian goths are now a fairly common sight in the major cities, and have their own thriving sub-culture. While there is the knowlegde that a great deal of the scene’s artists come from far away, there is no sense amongst the culture that most goths in other countries have things any different. In fact, the isolation of Australia and the distance from the gothic events that make the media, serve to spur the talented people here to build up and support the local scene, to make a name for themselves and express what they see as gothic.