There’s a trend you might have noticed emerging in an array of Australian popular cultural forms at the moment. It announces the return of locally-grown pride: albeit one taken through the route of irony and absurdity.

It’s the reinvigorated interest in Australiana – material visual culture that is visually themed as Australian – appearing in an era in which other forms of flag-waving nationalistic feeling are held deeply suspect. This is tongue-in-cheek nationalism, an image of the country as seen through the rose-coloured lens of Dame Edna’s diamante cat-eye glasses, reeking strongly of eucalyptus oil and Vegemite.

Its reference points are from the past – at the moment it seems to be drawing particularly from the 1970s and 1980s – and its current use, especially in fashion and pop music, seems to be connected to the re-evaluation of some of the iconic signifiers of Australian identity.