Sites of Contention

Abstract

Today, issues of establishment or quasi-establishment are topical and contentious in Australian public discourse. In the decades following the invasion and white settlement of Australia debate raged about the proper relationship between church and state in the fledgling Australian colonies. In this paper we review Australia’s past (1788 to 1850) to investigate whether and how interreligious relations demonstrate different forms of competition and conflict. Specifically, we explore how the political and social development of Australian colonies produced a quasi-establishment – neither true establishment nor strict separation of church and state – with rather different outcomes for church authority and practice. We suggest that changes in inter-group relations in an open playing field have led to new exertions of competition and conflict for establishment or quasi-establishment in Australia today.