Bulldozer

Bulldozer revives Thea Astley’s imaginary tropical landscape of North Queensland. As Cheryl Taylor (2005) observes, Astley takes a critical approach to the culture and history of the region while at the same time delighting in its perceived fecundity and capacity for human renewal. Such depictions of the wet tropics undermine traditionally masculine national narratives of the bush and beach. In ‘Bulldozer’, the non-normative protagonist is driven from a violent domestic relationship by a proliferation of mould; in this surreal intervention, the landscape takes an active role in undermining narratives of victimhood for neurodiverse protagonists.