Born in 1994

If you were born in 1994, Australia was feeling increasingly confident — the recession was behind it, the Olympics were confirmed, and the cultural scene was producing things the world was noticing. Silverchair burst into the public consciousness with "Tomorrow," three teenagers from Newcastle making grunge-inflected rock that got to number one and made Australian music cool again internationally. *Priscilla, Queen of the Desert* was in cinemas and was wonderful — funny, warm, specifically Australian in its combination of the outback and the absurd.

*Muriel's Wedding* opened at the end of the year and Toni Collette's performance was something to see. The Keating government was continuing its economic reform agenda, and the debate about the republic was intensifying — Keating wanted Australia to become a republic by the year 2000, a fitting Olympic year. The arguments were being had at every barbecue and around every office kitchen.

Paul Kelly was writing songs about it. The AFL was now genuinely national, Adelaide and Brisbane and the West Coast all committed. The summer of cricket, the backyard, the beach, the flat white in the coffee shop that had replaced the milkbar — these were the textures of a country finding its mature identity.

It was going pretty well.