School of Historical and Philosophical Studies - Theses

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Now showing 1 - 6 of 6
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    Some foundations of science in Victoria in the decade after separation
    Cohn, Helen M ( 1990)
    The decade following separation from New South Wales must surely be considered one of the most dramatic in Victoria's history. In that short space of time Victoria was transformed from a small dependent colony into a bustling cosmopolitan self-governing community of enormous wealth, completely outstripping its neighbours in the process. There had been an influx of migrants of such magnitude that the civil authorities found it very difficult to keep up with the population explosion. It must at times have seemed to them to be an impossible task to provide food, housing, water, power, roads and transport, sewerage and other amenities adequate to cope with the increasing number of people pouring into the colony. Added to this were problems of civil insurrection, severe economic depression, major constitutional reforms, and great political instability. During this period, despite all the trials and difficulties they had to face, Victorians developed a real sense that they were the premier colony, that they could achieve. whatever they set out to accomplish. There was a great feeling of optimism and self-confidence.
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    A reasonable share in the beauty of the Earth: William Morris's culture of nature
    WILLS, SARA ( 1998)
    This thesis explores what William Morris meant when he called for a 'reasonable share in the beauty of the earth' for all. Taking its cue from discussion of Morris's work in the 1980s and 1990s, it concentrates on the ways in which this statement represents a particular aggregation and formulation of ideas about nature. It challenges contemporary analyses that value Morris's work only in light of subsequent events—that uncritically celebrate the 'eco-centric' or 'green' Morris-and argues that it is necessary to explore nineteenth-century contexts for Morris's work. Thus it fills a gap in the understanding of Morris's concept of nature by exploring its historical circumstance: its roots and development, assimilations and transformations. It argues that Morris considered the only way to a full and lasting appreciation of nature, and a 'reasonable share in the beauty of the earth' for all, was through a very anthropocentric concern for humanity.
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    Without natural protectors: histories of deserted and destitute colonial women in Victoria 1850-1865
    Twomey, Christina Louise ( 1995)
    This thesis combines a social history of deserted wives with a cultural history of wife desertion. It does so within a particular historical moment, the Victorian gold-rush era, when there was much attention given to wife desertion as a pressing social problem. The study covers the years between 1850, the eve of gold discovery in Victoria, and the mid-1860s, by which time the acute social disturbances associated with the gold rushes had subsided, and the state had enacted its first major piece of welfare legislation, the 1864 Neglected and Criminal Children's Act. The central argument of this thesis is that, in mid-nineteenth-century Victoria, there developed a radical disjunction between the material needs of deserted wives and the cultural need to resolve the tensions and erase the contradictions invoked by their presence. This influenced both the forms of assistance available to deserted wives and the ways in which others imagined the amelioration of their condition. The first section of the thesis explores how deserted wives and their children emerged as the principal category of the colonial poor in mid-nineteenth-century Victoria. Although deserted wives are the main subjects of the thesis, they were not the only colonial women solely responsible for their dependent children. I also consider widows and single women with children, who shared the need to provide support for their families. The second part of the thesis is a detailed examination of the survival strategies undertaken by impoverished deserted wives, widows and single women with children. It draws on the traditions of social and welfare history and explores the opportunities for agency that existed in colonial women's interactions with private charitable societies and institutions. The thesis also challenges some of these historiographical traditions, which are focused on the dominance of private charitable effort, by undertaking a close analysis of the relationships between poor white women and officers of the state. A study of the operation of the Deserted Wives and Children Act and of the broader interactions between magistrates, police and destitute supplicants at the court house highlights the complex and ambiguous association between women and the state. In the third section of the thesis, entitled 'The Politics of Welfare', I move beyond daily survival strategies to examine how these interactions led to the formation of authorities on welfare matters in the colony and created public comment on wife desertion. Although widows and single women with children also faced problems in providing for their families, their fate, unlike that of deserted wives, did not capture the public imagination. Middle-class reformers and charity groups highlighted the prevalence of family desertion in ways that revealed as much about their own social and cultural anxieties as they did about the problems faced by deserted wives. The section examines the place of deserted wives in the rhetoric of two reform movements: the campaign for industrial schools, which culminated in the passing of the Neglected and Criminal Children's Act, and the land reform movement. Deserted wives were powerful cultural symbols of the dislocations of gold discovery, and of urban poverty, that reformers appropriated and used for their own ends.
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    Satisfying their egos: Eugene von Guérard's homestead 'portraits', 1855-1875
    GAVVA, ELLEN ( 1998)
    Eugene von Guerard (1811-1901), a German artist, lived for twenty-eight years inAustralia (1853-1881) and achieved considerable success as a painter. He was a popular and the most controversial Australian artist of the middle of the nineteenth century. His contribution to Australian art was largely forgotten until the 1960s. Von Guerard has mainly been presented as a landscape artist and poorly regarded as a country property painter. My research examines von Guerard as a homestead painter(1855-1875), who was commissioned by wealthy squatters to immortalise their success and prosperity in paintings of their estates. I have analysed five of von Guerard's paintings, of three homesteads "'Purrumbete' from across the Lake" and "From the verandah of 'Purrumbete'" (1858), two canvases of "Bushy Park" (1861)and "Glenara". He skilfully linked the diverse elements of the landscape, the history of human occupation and the achievements of the proprietors. Von Guerard's style of painting incorporated Romantic traditions and the English traditions of country house painting, which the squatters, who were of British background, wanted to see in their paintings. By combining these traditions, the artist represented the commissioners' homesteads according to their personal request and aspirations. Von Guerard depicted in detail the wishes, ambitions, desires and achievements of the squatters - to satisfy their egos. He recorded the possessions of the estate owners' in art and presented a view and perception what was wanted by commissioners. He created a portraiture of the history of the squatters and symbolised the objects significant to them and particular events in their lives. Von Guerard's homestead 'portraits' are valuable as historical documents. They arevisual records of the development of the colony, the squatters' establishment of the Old Word traditions and their status in Australia.