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The purpose of this paper is, first, to provide a brief sketch map of a comparative nature of some linked, formative appropriations in Germany and elsewhere in the early part of this century of the Swiss jurist and archaeologist Johann Jakob Bachofen (1815-1887), famous for his influential but controversial theory of the precedence of primitive matriarchy over patriarchy in the Mediterranean and elsewhere.

This article traces some aspects of Nietzsche's presence in Australian culture and literature, following its evolving, ambiguous influence through different texts, from dubious vulgarizations full of misogyny, xenophobia and racism - like John Fearn's This Love Business - to masterpieces of Australian literature like Patrick White's Voss.