Nature and citizenship : John Locke and the Australian experience of political space

The Centenary of Federation rightly led to a renewed consideration of the state of Australian citizenship and identity. This article will add to this discussion by attempting to show how the political subject, the democratic citizen, is formed within certain spatial determinants, particularly in relation to nature itself. That is, when we think about how Australians understand their democracy and how they act as citizens we have to take into account how such a political culture necessarily developed within the specificity of this continent’s natural environment.