School of Historical and Philosophical Studies - Theses
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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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ItemThe state of modern Greek language as spoken in Victoria( 1986)This thesis reports a sociolinguistic study, carried out between 1981 and 1984, of the state of the Modern Greek (MG) language in Australia, as spoken by native-speaking first-generation Greek immigrants in Victoria. Particular emphasis is given to the analysis of those characteristics of the linguistic behaviour of these Greek Australians which can be attributed to the contact with English and to other environmental, social and linguistic influence. (For complete abstract open document)
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ItemThe hospital south of the Yarra: a history to celebrate the centenary of Alfred Hospital Melbourne 1871-1971( 1972-02)Although this work was commissioned for the purpose of celebrating Alfred Hospital’s first one hundred years, I have made no effort to cover all of those years. I have set out: 1. To isolate the historical precedents for current hospital procedures and in particular to explore the relationship between Alfred Hospital and the State Government. This task was burdened by the scarcity of early hospital records and of research in related fields of charitable and social welfare - which emphasizes the value of rescuing the hospital’s fast vanishing past from oblivion. 2. By attention to human relationships (that constantly inconsistent element in all institutional affairs) to evoke those unique qualities which distinguish Alfred Hospital from other similar hospitals. 3. To convey what the Alfred meant to the greatest number of people associated with it. 4. To provide a useful source of reference.
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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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ItemThe Victorian charity network in the 1890's( 1976-06)Poverty was widespread in Victorian society in the later nineteenth century, but the colony remained proud that it had not had to resort to a Poor Law in order to meet the needs of the less fortunate of its citizens. Instead, the relief of the destitute was the responsibility of a large number of voluntary charitable agencies, most financially dependent on the government to a greater or lesser extent, but totally under the control of those private citizens who chose and were able to make regular donations. (For complete precis open document)
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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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Item"Strangers within the gates": Victorian governments and non-Europeans, 1880-1908( 1982)In 1901 the Commonwealth Parliament passed the first national law restricting the entry of non-Europeans into Australia - the Immigration Restriction Act. This Act, by enabling the testing of potentially "undesirable" immigrants with a passage of dictation in English or another European language, effectively set up a "White Australia" barrier to non-European immigration. But such a "Natal test" device had, in fact, been established several years earlier in several of the then un-joined Australian colonies; and, although 1901 is conveniently taken as the beginning of the "White Australia policy", in fact all Australian colonies had immigration measures specifically directed against one or more non-European groups on the Statute books by the 1880s. The national "White Australia" barrier erected in 1901 had its origins in colonial attitudes and measures, and it is with this aspect of Australian historical inquiry - the development of Government policies, attitudes and legislation against non-Europeans in a specific colony in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries - that this thesis is concerned.
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ItemFraming Fitzroy: contesting and (de)constructing place and identity in a Melbourne suburb( 2002)This thesis examines the ways in which Melbourne's 'worst suburb', Fitzroy, was constructed, both physically and culturally, from the Great Depression of the 1930s until the gentrification of the suburb in the early 1970s. The thesis argues that an array of institutions, extending from social welfare and slum reform groups to the media and a variety of policing agencies, relentlessly constructed Fitzroy as the site of social evil in Melbourne. It examines the variety of texts, both written and visual, that were utilised to construct a singular and negative representation of Fitzroy that legitimated particular forms of intervention. The thesis critiques and contests this representation through an analysis of the lives of those who lived in Fitzroy in the period covered by this thesis and by using a variety of original sources, including the testimonies of those who lived and worked in Fitzroy. It is a central argument of this thesis that Fitzroy was a place of complexity, vitality and cultural value for those who lived there.
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ItemFreemasonry and community in nineteenth-century Victoria( 1987)Freemasonry has had a controversial image ever since the first of the modern Grand Lodges of Freemasons appeared in London during the early years of the eighteenth century. The brotherhood's claim to be the guardian of the traditions of an ancient guild of stone masons has received wide credence, and their organization has been well respected in some quarters. Yet always it would seem there have been those who have scoffed at these freemasons' presumption and regarded their network of lodges as a purely social organization, the members of which have a taste for exotic ritual and costume. Over the years there have been many who have accused the fraternity of encouraging dissipation among young men, arguing that lodge meetings and formal banquets are often only an excuse for intemperance. Masons in general have been charged with not acting according to the high code of social conduct they profess to teach. It has been claimed they frequently do not keep their promises of assistance to fellow-masons in time of need. At various times and places the fraternity has been charged with using the oath of secrecy it extracts from candidates for admission to conceal orchestrated attempts to subvert religious or state institutions; some of their critics have seen them as a radical or subversive group, others as a reactionary body of men. At frequent intervals the opinion has been expressed that masons use their fraternal relationship for personal gain, and for this reason alone their networks are detrimental to the community in general. In defence of their organization, freemasons have argued that the philosophy which underpins their rituals will provide moral guidance to all those who sincerely seek it. They claim it can help men understand how to live in peace with each other and what action they can take to ensure their community progresses to a higher form of civilization. Masons believe that participation in masonic life can promote both spiritual and mental growth, as within a lodge men encounter an atmosphere which encourages them to develop their innate capacities. Masonry is said to lead them to be charitable and more tolerant of others religious beliefs, attentive to their family responsibilities and obedient to the laws of their community. A number of masons have proudly catalogued the aristocrats, men who have become leaders of nations through the ballot-box, or received public acclaim due to their outstanding achievement in economic, scientific or literary fields, who have become lodge members since the founding of the first of the modern Grand Lodges of Freemasons in London in 1717. The oaths of secrecy required from initiates have been defended on the grounds of their great antiquity, and their common usage by other fraternities and sororities to underline the special kind of bond created by acceptance as a member. Masons argue their oaths cannot be regarded as anti-social in intention, as masonry has been restricted to men of mature age, whom their peers have judged able to appreciate masonic wisdom as well as keep its secrets. Candidates must also be possessed of financial resources or skills which ensure that they are capable of supporting themselves and assisting all worthy causes. Within private lodges three 'craft degrees' may be conferred, that of apprentice, fellowcraft and master. However, a variety of so-called 'higher degrees' may be received by master masons who join a chapter or conclave. Masons are in broad agreement that the latter are peripheral to freemasonry. The master masons who are interested in exploring the meaning of a variety of esoteric rituals based on the practices of legendary bands of men for a higher degree have always been a small minority. Although chapters and conclaves are usually associated with one or more craft lodges, they do not have direct representation within Grand Lodge organizations, and in this thesis the use of the term 'masonry' normally refers to networks of craft lodges only. The rapid spread around the world of a network of independent Grand Lodges, whose private lodges usually extend a welcome to visiting master masons no matter in which region of the world they have received the right to that title, is a phenomena of historical interest. During the modern era, few social institutions can equal the Grand Lodges of freemasonry in longevity and geographic spread. These societies of adult males, which sometime have accepted women, were but one manifestation of a great revival of voluntary associationism which accompanied the translation of rural villagers into urban social classes. Trade Unions, Co-operatives, Friendly Societies and Grand Lodges had goals in common and seem to have drawn upon some of the same sources for their inspiration in Anglo-Saxon societies. Yet during the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries each performed a distinctive role. Whereas the other associations offered their members defined pecuniary benefits, masonic lodges only offered to teach men a system of social ethics. As masonic lodges appeared to proffer what was already available from churches or educational establishments there was no obvious reason why masonry should attain the kind of world-wide popularity it did over the years.
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ItemPublic perceptions of organisational offending: an analysis of attitudinal change between 1986 and 1994( 1996)In 1986 the Australian Institute of Criminology conducted one of the most far reaching surveys of public attitudes towards crime conducted in Australia. As one part of a broader study of white collar crime, a replication of the 1986 study was undertaken in metropolitan Melbourne in 1994. This thesis focuses upon organisational crime and presents a comparison of current attitudes held by the Victorian public with those held by the Australian community in 1986. Underlying this comparison is the proposition that community attitudes towards white collar crime, and organisational crimes in particular, have hardened throughout the period. The findings of this analysis suggest that for the most serious of white collar crimes - those organisational offences leading to physical harms - community attitudes have indeed hardened in some ways. These findings raise several important implications for current judicial policy towards organisational crime, as well as white collar crime generally.