School of Historical and Philosophical Studies - Theses
Permanent URI for this collection
Search Results
1 - 3 of 3
-
ItemThe Chinese in Victoria: a longterm survey( 1993)The thesis is divided into three parts. Part One is headed by a fairly broad historiographic review into past works on the Chinese in Australia. This is followed by a brief introduction to the historical and cultural background of the immigrants and the character of their migration. An examination of the passive and proudly in different responses of the Chinese to Victorian anti-Chinese legislation concludes this section. The stress of this final chapter is on the overall lack of influence of the White Australian Policy on the behaviour of the Chinese. Part Two examines the sojourning sentiments of the Chinese and how they affected the sex and age distribution of the population, their choice and method of work, their accommodation and quality of life. Part Three begins by contrasting the impact of science and technology on Australia and China and the focus will be on China’s peripheral position in the industrial world. The insecurity of the Chinese in the industrialising environment of Australia will be considered. This will be contrasted by the more accommodating cultural milieu of Southeast Asia and the important thread of Chinese culture and traditions throughout the region’s history. The importance of the ‘modified’ or ‘mixed’ version of the family business in assisting the rise of the Chinese in the Southeast Asian region will be discussed. The final part of the thesis will suggest that the decline of the Victorian Chinese in the four occupations of alluvial mining, furniture-making, market-gardening and laundering was significantly affected by an inflexible attitude to technology. It is argued that the Chinese did not apply science and advanced equipment when it was prudent to do so. The conclusion will summarise the main argument and suggest its relevance for the modern overseas Chinese communities.
-
ItemA charm in distance: the Victorian anti-transportation movement 1844-1864( 1993)In the late 1840s and early 1850s, in what was then still called the Port Phillip District, a significant social and political unrest gripped the colony. A discourse emerged amongst the young society's most respected members, and it was eagerly followed by virtually all elements of that society, down to the most humble tradesman. This often heated discussion targeted many enemies, among them some of the colony's venerated and wealthy squatter gentry. From this more immediate target, the rhetoric shifted to the Government - first, the government of the Port Phillip District, then to the Home Government in London. In July, 1851, the Port Phillip District separated from New South Wales to form the colony of Victoria. Immediately afterwards, the discourse united the new colony with other Australian colonies - and within but one year, this same dialogue would estrange Victoria from her neighbours, as well as the Mother Country. The source of this occasionally dramatic debate was the influx of convicted felons into the Port Phillip District and its successor, the colony of Victoria. For several years, it engaged the attention of the colony's newspapers and politicians, mechanics and barristers, established pastoralists and recently arrived urbanites. The impact of felons went beyond mere questions of crime. The convict was an affront to national pride, as evinced by the words of the anti-transportationists. But what sort of national pride was being defended in this struggle? To understand the source of this discussion, and to comprehend how and why it took the forms it did, it is necessary to place this phenomenon in a larger historical context. (From introduction)
-
ItemThe itinerary of our days: the historical experience of the street in Melbourne, 1837-1923( 1993)By the 1920s, the automobile had radically altered the social experience of Melbourne’s streets, and an apparent demise of social vibrancy together with the marginalising of traditional street culture have been attributed to its impact on the function and use of public space. The increased regulation of public street life, as enforced particularly by municipal authority, can however be related to broader motives dating back to the city’s earliest days. The planning of the colonial grid in 1837 established a physical and symbolic template for social organisation, and developing spatial hierarchies characterised the street as a social zone. Aided by technological developments, the interface between the footpath and the carriageway gradually became more distinguished, the space of the footpath being allocated not simply in terms of circulatory function, but on the basis of moral, gendered, and aesthetic interpretations. A range of street facilities and municipal ordinances combatted a variety of nuisance definitions, effectively enhancing the physical and sanitary experience of the urban setting, but at the same time creating more rigid surveillance over public social behaviour. The function of the street as economic space for the itinerant hawker and fixed-stand vendor was regulated in the face of growing concerns not only about circulatory congestion, but about class respectability, noise, race, litter, and municipal self-image. The street as the setting for urban public ritual was by the 1920s limited on the grounds of both congestion and cultural homogeneity, where once a diverse range of social groups actually and symbolically claimed the space of the streets for public display. The street is seen as an increasingly regulated urban form, a setting for complex negotiations over public social behaviour and the instrument of a detailed regulatory apparatus demanding conformity to particular conceptions of class, aesthetics, etiquette, convenience, nuisance, race and gender. While nostalgic images of nineteenth-century street life often edit out its negative aspects, the legacy of the first century of municipal authority over public urban domain has been the limitation of the very social diversity which may be an antidote to more contemporary urban ills.