School of Historical and Philosophical Studies - Theses
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ItemThe settlement of Melbourne 1851-1893: selected aspects of urban growth( 1970-02)Melbourne was the obvious choice as a prototype of a nineteenth century colonial city in the following study in urban history. It succeeded early to a pre-eminent position within Victoria, indeed of the entire Australian continent and its position of supremacy went unchallenged until the twentieth century. It was never seriously threatened by the claims of rival cities such as Ballarat, Sandhurst or Geelong. In this respect, Melbourne was a classic primate city with a whole-state hinterland and was justly described as "the commercial metropolis of the South". Its favourable geographic location, centrally placed between eastern and western halves of the colony, together with its position at the northern end of Port Phillip Bay provided the logical point of convergance for a railway network spanning the reaches of the interior. This gave a nodal quality to the city which made it the sole effective input-output point for all commerce with the mainland interior.(For complete abstract open document)
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ItemSome aspects of the development of the metal trades in Ballarat 1851-1901( 1971-08)This thesis is an attempt to provide a special examination centering on some aspects on the development of metal processing and fabricating industries in the Victorian gold mining town of Ballarat from its foundation in 1851 to the end of its first half century in 1901. It is in effect a case study of a particular group of manufacturing activities made with the intention of improving general historians' understanding of the forces behind the establishment and growth of secondary industries in the non-metropolitan towns of nineteenth century Australia.
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ItemThe Australian Railways Union: railway management and railway work in Victoria 1920-1939( 1989)This thesis takes the Australian Railways Union as a focus for an examination of the Victorian Railways between the two World Wars. The development of the union is traced through the optimistic expectations of the early 1920s, the disillusionment which followed the union’s affiliation with the ALP and registration under the Commonwealth Arbitration Court, to the increasing polarisation of the union on political lines as the 1930s progressed. At the same time the union’s relations with, railway management are explored. The innovative management style of Harold Winthrop Clapp, whose term as Chief Railways Commissioner covered the two decades under discussion in this thesis, is examined and set in the context of developments elsewhere in Australia and overseas. The repercussions of Clapp’s administrative and technological changes in railway work are discussed throughout the thesis, and particular attention is paid to the relationship between such changes and job loss. The problems arising from lack of clarity over control of the Railways Department, which are also examined in a separate chapter, were common to other statutory authorities as well. The financial situation of the railways is discussed in relation to that of other Australian railways. The problem of transport regulation to prevent uneconomic competition between motor transport and railways, which received growing recognition during the period of this thesis, also receives special attention. During the Great Depression, the Victorian Railways Department and the ARU played a central role in the national arena. The railway basic wage case of 1930, which resulted in a ten per cent cut in wages, set a precedent for all major industries. The analysis of transcripts of this lengthy case has produced much which is of general significance for economic and labour history. In the final chapters of the thesis, the ARU is shown approaching the radicalism of the 1940s, when large scale industrial action was carried out under Communist leadership. The union in 1939, following two decades of activity as part of a federal railways union, and experience of arbitration and affiliation to the ALP, was very different from the union which had existed up until 1920 in Victoria, with its narrow sphere of activity bounded by ‘the railway fence’, and this thesis explores that transition.
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ItemThe emergence of a bayside suburb: Sandringham, Victoria c. 1850-1900( 1971-03)The past neglect of the Australian city by historians is frequently the subject of lament. The neglect can be highlighted by noting that not only has the impact of the city been generally avoided in Australian historiography despite its overarching importance but also by the fact that Melbourne and Sydney still lack biographies. By contrast, major British and United States cities have had substantial treatment. Therefore, in the circumstance of very considerable gaps in Australian urban historiography, there is probably little need to justify a research topic which tackles the emergence of Sandringham, a Melbourne suburb in the late 19th century. Apart from the narrow and local purpose of providing a means by which local residents can further identify themselves with their community, a suburb history can provide a case study in urbanization which can be of relevance to the whole field of urban history and more specifically, it can enrich the written history of the city of which it is part.
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ItemLabour pains: working-class women in employment, unions, and the Labor Party in Victoria, 1888-1914( 1987-05)This study focuses on the experiences of working-class women spanning the years from 1888 to 1914 - a period of significant economic growth and socio-political change in Victoria. The drift of population into the urban centres after the goldrush marked the beginning of a rapid and continual urban expansion in Melbourne as the city’s industrial and commercial sectors grew and diversified. Throughout the 1870s and 1880s, the increasing population provided a larger workforce which also represented a growing consumer market. The rise of the Victorian manufacturing industries in this period also saw the introduction of the modern factory system. With the increasing demand for unskilled labour in factories, it was not only men who entered this new factory workforce. Young women and older children were, for the first time, drawn in appreciable numbers into the industrial workforce as employers keenly sought their services as unskilled and cheap workers. Women were concentrated in specific areas of the labour market, such as the clothing, boot, food and drink industries, which became strictly areas of “women’s work”. In the early twentieth century, the rigid sexual demarcation of work was represented by gender-differentiated wages and employment provisions within industrial awards.
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ItemShow business: a history of theatre in Victoria 1835-1948( 1949)...The material available to the student of the theatrical history of this State and Nation, is relatively sparse, and extremely scattered. Much has been covered in newspaper articles, but no attempt has ever been made to pull the material together and show it as part of a continuous story, superimposed upon the background of the political, social and economic history of the State. That is what I now attempt to do. If it does nothing more than bring the basic information within reasonable compass, I will not feel I have failed. If, on the other hand, it should arouse an interest in either the history or the practice of Theatre, in its widest sense, so that a multitude of young men and women may be rescued from the slough of saccharine sentimentality into which Hollywood has led them, to an increasing interest in legitimate Theatre, the development of which is considered by some to be a concomitant of National greatness, then I shall feel that I have indeed succeeded. (From introduction)
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ItemHow the south-east was held: aspects of the quadripartite interaction of Mount Gambier, Portland, Adelaide and Melbourne 1860-1917( 1977)This thesis examines aspects of the "perennial theme of discussion", acknowledging the involvement of four participants, viz., Mt. Gambier, Portland, Adelaide and Melbourne. The assertion of regional generality was supported by the fact that between 1866 and 1921 the Mt. Gambier district rarely contained less than 39% of the total population of the South-East of South Australia. Indeed, in 1911, over 48% of the region's population lived in the vicinity of Mt. Gambier. Furthermore, as Hirst noted, Mt. Gambier was the only old South Australian country town to maintain a steady rate of growth between 1870 and 1917. These facts contributed to the belief, to be longheld by both Adelaide and Melbourne, that Mt. Gambier was the key to the South-East of South Australia. The holding of Mt. Gambier was then thought to be a necessary precursor to the holding of the South-East. Learmonth and Logan have each produced very useful studies of the Victorian port of Portland and its hinterland. Their perceptions, however, remain essentially "Victorian". While the proximity of the border between Victoria and South Australia was acknowledged, no rigorous attempt was made to study historically its regional influence. This thesis also aims to remedy that situation. (From introduction)
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ItemE.H. Lascelles and the Victorian Mallee: a survey of settlement 1850-1905( 1966)This survey deals with a portion of the Victorian Mal1ee, in the North-West of the state, stretching from Lake Corrong across to Lake Tyrrell. From 1883 to 1890 the area under wheat in Victoria remained stagnant at about 1,100,000 acres as the process of settling farmers on pastoral lands slowed down. The one area in Victoria where the wheatlands increased in the 1890's and 1900's was the Mallee. E. H. Lascelles was largely responsible for the rapid extension of wheat growing in the area during the 1890's. Geographical considerations play a large part in the Mallee story. The area is isolated, the Mallee growth distinctive and the rainfall light and unpredictable. This survey is an attempt to trace the interaction of man and this environment, with the necessary changes and adaptations which took place as the squatters gave way before the selectors. However because the Mallee covers such a large area - virtually all of the North-West corner of the state - it was impossible to survey the whole in such a short study. So E. H. Lascelles and the belt of country in which he was primarily interested formed a suitable and contained segment of the area, with concentration upon the sub-division schemes at Hopetoun and Tyrrell Downs.
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ItemWilliam Thomas and the Port Phillip Protectorate, 1838-1849( 1966)Between 1839 and 1849 the total number of Aborigines living in the area between Melbourne and Western Port declined by 50 per cent, despite the impact of the most intensive attempt to civilize Aborigines ever made in Australia. Those Aborigines who did survive showed no signs whatsoever of adopting the white man’s culture. The elaborate scheme known as the Protectorate had failed. Various reasons have been put forward for this failure. Some colonials maintained that the “sneaking murdering black cannibals” were incapable of improvement and even many Christians concluded that the Aborigines were suffering under the judgement of God and therefore could not be helped much by human agencies. The Protectors accused the Government of deliberately hindering their activities and of doing nothing beneficial for the Aborigines. The Government — or at least La Trobe, who was “practically the Government” — maintained that conflict between settlers and Aborigines was an inevitable stage in the spread of civilization, that the Protectors were incompetent and that the Protectorate was an unnecessary encumbrance on the Government. And the Aborigines for their part, said that “all White Men Bungalarly”, thereby signifying their contempt for anything white. Was there any truth in all of these mutual recriminations? The truth — in my opinion — lies in the conflict of ideas. The settlers wanted land and were prepared to sacrifice the rights of the few natives to the God of profit. The Government, while pressed by its English overlords to look after the rights of the Aborigines, lent heavily towards the views expounded by the settlers and pursued a vacillating role, sometimes supporting the Protectors in the hope that they would convert the Aborigines into an economic asset, more often turning a blind eye to abuse. The Protectors tried to stamp their own philosophy and religion — a philosophy and religion which had been successfully applied in England for the reform of the lower classes — on the Aborigines. Each of these groups, then, tried to impose a particular pattern of behaviour on the Aborigines, but the Aborigines, having their own ideals and aspirations, regarded all of these groups as hostile and rejected them. This thesis attempts to describe and examine these conflicting ideas, and in particular, to examine the Aborigines reactions to the schemes devised for their reform. (From Introduction)
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ItemThe Victorian Labor Party, 1885-1894( 1984)The Victorian labor party, compared with its counterparts in the other colonies, had a retarded development as a distinct and independent radical party. It was smaller in number and played less of a role in forming and making ministries by August 1894. Victorian labor's slow growth was due to the strong grip of the liberal reform tradition with its progressive and strong liberal party of the 1870's, which advocated radical reforms, such as protection and land taxes, that appeased the workers. And labor was largely overshadowed by and relied on the leading liberals' stronger electoral appeal, legislative initiatives and performance in parliament, which continued into the 1890' s. Liberalism’s attraction ensured that, from the birth of the labor party, labor would see itself as an ally of the liberal party, fragmented and disunited as it was from the mid - 1880's, and as a separate, radical force within the liberal reform tradition, as well as a totally independent radical party of the workers and unionists, who had not been properly represented by the liberals. The other main factors in labor's lack of strength were the party's limited appeal to only a section of the working class (artisans rather than miners, rural workers and non-unionists), the party's lack of financial and organizational independence in depressed times, the rampant apathy and divisions within its ranks, the union movement and the working class, and the peculiarities of the unfair electoral system. But the labor party, as defined, had earlier origins (1885) and was more independent of and influenced the liberals than has previously been supposed. It was influential in having its policies adopted or supported in and out of parliament and in moulding, to some degree, Victoria's political system. Contrary to the view that the THC and craft unions were uninterested in direct representation of labor, it was the Melbourne craft and semi-skilled unions, rather than the new unions of Shearers and Miners, which were the most interested and active of all the other trade unions in forming and furthering support for the labor party. Although the Sydney Trades and Labour Council played a bigger role in forming the largest labor party in 1891, the THC had a larger part in initiating the party from 1885 and controlling the PPL at the top levels than has previously been thought. At the 1886 and 1889 elections, the labor candidates showed the magnetism of liberalism by using labor and liberal titles interchangeably and espousing the same major policies. But they were distinguished by having their own committees, receiving union and unofficial THC support, and pushing for specific grievances and interests, especially protectionist, of the skilled workers or THC, as well as their own. The maritime strike of 1890 was not a turning point in the moves for direct representation, then, as moves had started in the eighties, but it served, like the depression, as a great impetus by helping to radicalize the workers into wanting greater representation and more reforms. Before June 1891 Victorian labor, with three parliamentary members, had achieved very little success in obtaining labor legislation; but, in this, it was in a similar position to its counterparts in the other colonies, and, indeed, it was in a stronger numerical position in parliament than N.S.W. labor at that time. Between 1891 and 1894 labor's influence in and out of parliament grew and it helped to shape the modest beginnings of a modern political party system, as party lines, although still somewhat loose, became more defined and polarized. Victorian labor was not as significant in moulding the party system as its counterparts in the other colonies. They were numerically larger, and so were a major third party or a partner in a ministry, and labor and anti-labor lines were more pronounced in those colonies. But it had a larger role in shaping politics up to August 1894 than has been argued by writers. In 1891 the labor party had introduced some new features. The pledge resulted in the party's higher unity in voting than other parties in the Assembly in 1892. Its extra-parliamentary organization, although not as elaborate as that of the old liberal party of the 1870's, was unique in that it was larger than that of other Victorian parties, was based upon union support and most of its executive and parliamentary representatives were from union and THC ranks. Labor was more radical than liberal in wanting more urgently the enactment of further protection, which was a dividing line between them from the eighties, the end of subletting and the introduction of a minimum wage, the legalization of eight hours, one man one vote, conciliation and arbitration, a higher income tax and other taxes, land nationalization, and some banking and financial reforms. Accordingly, there was much agitation in and out of parliament, especially between 1892 and 1894. Because of its significant influence upon the Shiels government in regard to taxation, especially the increased customs duties, labor was indirectly responsible for the fall of the liberal government, as many liberals deserted supporting it and voted for the conservative Patterson government. Labor was largely responsible for the conservatives' uniting in and out of parliament. The conservatives became the most cohesive group in parliament, as party lines deepened between liberal and conservative. As protection and other policies were placed in jeopardy or were not enacted, labor drew closer to the liberal forces to unite in order to defend these policies and helped to oust the Patterson regime in 1894.