Searching for “Australia’s Woodstock”: The Forgotten Australian Rock Festivals of 1970 – 1975

ABSTRACT Between 1970 and 1975, at least 18 rock festivals took place in Australia, often near regional towns. These have gone largely undocumented. By focusing on these “forgotten” festivals, this article contributes to our understanding of the festival’s role in Australian music culture, mapping the Australian context over the international rock music trends of the time. These festivals highlight the contribution of regional and rural settings to the development of contemporary Australian popular music. The use of the mythology of Woodstock in discourses around the festivals demonstrates conflicts within the youth countercultures of the time, and moral panics associated with them.