The bush legacy todayThe idea of the bush as integral to Australian identity was reinforced in 1958 when Russel Ward published The Australian Legend. While some critics criticised his interpretation of what comprises a 'typical Australian', he argues that traits such as mateship, anti-authoritarianism, swearing and hard drinking came from the frontier experiences of real bush workers.

Bush ideals have been revered in recent years with television programs like Bush Tucker Man and films like Crocodile Dundee. Many well-known Australian films are built on stories from or concerning the bush. These include Picnic at Hanging Rock (1975), Eliza Fraser (1976), Breaker Morant (1981),Gallipoli (1981), Man from Snowy River (1982), Crocodile Dundee (1986) and Evil Angels (1988). Rabbit Proof Fence(2002) and Ten Canoes (2006) show how the bush is viewed as a source of nourishment for Indigenous people. The 1980s and 1990s saw the bush become synonymous with drought, debt, depopulation and unemployment. Natural disasters and the natural cycles in the bush of drought, fire and flood have helped define Australian language, a sense of humour as well as comedy, music, poetry and literature.

Distinctive Australian architecture, with its roots in the bush, is recognisable in the rural icons of 'The Queenslander' house, the wool shed and the beach house. Characteristically, these designs used local materials as well as corrugated iron, and emphasised space and light as well as a connection to the landscape. "Queenslander style" house Aussie outback woolshed Aussie beach house These qualities have been interpreted in modern Australian architecture with the approach of addressing the landscape, the place and the issues. For example, the Uluru Kata Tjuta Cultural Centre incorporates the Indigenous experience of country.

In his Australia Day address in 2002, author and ecologist,Tim Flannery, said 'Australians could only become a 'true people' by developing 'deep, sustaining roots in the land'. He said the land was 'the only thing that we all, uniquely, share in common. It is at once our inheritance, our sustenance, and the only force ubiquitous and powerful enough to craft a truly Australian people.'