Donald Horne’s The Lucky Country claimed that “Australia was one of the first nations to find part of the meaning of life in the purchase of consumer goods.” Significantly, similar views had been expressed in the late 18th century, where everyday life in the antipodean outpost of Empire was regarded as being pecuniary and acquisitive in nature. While references to Australia as a “consumer society” continue to be made, the question of how Australia came to be so has attracted less attention. The chapters in Consumer Australia actively redress this omission by examining the ways in...