'What route are you taking?' The transnational experience of the Barry McKenzie movies

In this article I focus on the offshore life of The Adventures of Barry McKenzie and its big budget sequel to demonstrate the value of Australian cultural history to the field of screen studies and researchers interested in the transnationality of Australian cinema. The concept of historical mobilities and routes helps us move beyond discourses of the Australian film revival, home-grown types and tropes and colony versus mother country to consider the creative influence of cosmopolitan bohemian and avant-garde movements in which the film-makers honed their craft and aesthetics, the offshore creative context, notably British satire, and the experience of cross-border travelling itself - and obstructions to that act - which is the central thematic and narrative concern of both films.