Lucky Country

proper noun

A term to describe Australia, sometimes ironically.

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Meanings

proper nounthe Lucky Country
  1. informalA term to describe Australia, sometimes ironically.

    My friends, no longer content to be the lucky country, Australia must become the clever country.

    1990 March 8, Bob Hawke, Prime Minister of Australia, Australian federal election speeches
    1 more example

    Australia is a lucky country run mainly by second rate people who share its luck. It lives on other people's ideas, and, although its ordinary people are adaptable, most of its leaders (in all fields) so lack curiosity about the events that surround them that they are often taken by surprise.

    1964, Donald Horne, “The Lucky Country (last chapter)”, in The Lucky Country, Penguin, 1st paragraph of chapter

Origin

After The Lucky Country, a 1964 book by Donald Horne.

Full word history & related roots →
Cite this entry
APA

Lucky Country. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 4, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/Lucky%20Country

MLA

“Lucky Country.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/Lucky%20Country. Accessed November 4, 2026.

Chicago

WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “Lucky Country,” accessed November 4, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/Lucky%20Country.

Source: Lucky Country on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.