School of Historical and Philosophical Studies - Theses

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Anthropocentric utilitarian progressivism?: a case study of popular attitudes, scientific knowledge and dominant belief systems influencing industrial and domestic pollution of the Merri Creek, 1835-1915

Howes, Hilary ( 2004)

This thesis investigates the industrial and domestic pollution of the Merri Creek in Melbourne’s north-eastern suburbs under European settlement, paying particular attention to the noxious trades and sewage disposal practices of the Victorian era, and locating this discussion within the broader context of other water resource issues in Australia during this period. My study centres on the intensification of the pollution problem following the population boom of the gold rush period; the corresponding increase in public discontent with the state of the Merri, culminating in a series of letters to local newspapers; and the nature and efficacy of individual and collective responses to these complaints. I place alongside the specific progression of the creek’s pollution problem a discussion of social and economic conditions, as well as aspects of the prevailing mental climate, which allowed and even promoted settler abuses of water and water resources.