Opera has been performed in Australia for more than two hundred years, yet none of the operas written before the Second World War have become part of the repertoire, and it is only in the late 1970s and early 1980s that there is evidence of the successful systematic production of indigenous opera. The emergence of a thriving operatic tradition in contemporary Australia is inextricably enmeshed in Australian cultural consciousness and issues of national identity. In this study of 18 representative contemporary operas, Michael Halliwell elucidates the ways in which the operas reflect and engage with the issues facing contemporary Australians.