School of Historical and Philosophical Studies - Theses
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Item“More than an engineering project”: How the Melbourne Underground Rail Loop shaped a modern city( 2022)From 1970 to 1983, the Melbourne Underground Rail Loop Authority (MURLA) oversaw the construction of three central city underground stations linked to Melbourne’s nineteenth-century suburban railway network. Melbourne’s City Loop was built in a global moment where the modernising potential of underground railway systems was promoted as a response to the challenges of economic instability and renewal of inner urban fabrics. In the Australian context, it was a significant financial and cultural investment in public transport, in a city dominated physically and socially by the private motor car, and during a period of considerable uncertainty about the future of inner urban spaces. Literatures of urban infrastructure in this period have focused primarily on political, economic and institutional narratives, with limited reference to social and cultural histories of technology and urban environment. This thesis argues that the City Loop was the product of a dialectic between the cultural significations of urban change and the physical transformation of urban spaces. It draws on the records of MURLA and popular media sources to examine how the Loop became a locus for discourses of modernity, through its advertising campaigns, the experiences and impacts of worker deaths, and finally in the physical spaces it contributed to the city of Melbourne. These findings contribute to the broader fields of Australian and international urban history by demonstrating how urban infrastructure is both influenced by and influences cultures of city life. The findings offer further opportunities for research into the role of underground railway projects in shaping twentieth century cities.
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ItemPublic architecture, space and identity in six poleis in Asia minor: the observer through time (from the 2nd century BC to the 3rd century AD)( 2017)Research on public architecture and its development in the poleis of Asia Minor from the Hellenistic to Roman imperial period has often tended to focus on individual building types and to regard them as a series. This approach overlooks a building's role in the overall cityscape and its intended effect on the observer. Yet studies which examine the notion of the cityscape for ancient observers often make only a passing reference to the archaeological record. The identity of this observer has also tended to be ill defined. The observer, who was either a resident or visitor to these cities, experienced public architecture as well as other objects on public display, and derived meaning from their placement, decoration and overall connection to the cityscape. This thesis will consider the social and historical context as well as the archaeological record in regard to the development of different types of public architecture and other displays in specific poleis in Asia Minor. The placement and motivations for these elements' construction, their role in the cityscape and their reception by those who experienced them will be discussed. The period discussed begins with the increased diffusion of Classical-style poleis in the 2nd century BC, and ends at the beginning of the 3rd century AD. This study will employ a number of carefully chosen case studies: Balboura, Lyrbe/Seleukia, Pessinus, Ephesus, Pisidian Antioch and Kremna; and thus will apply a specific rather than general approach. The discussion will consider the evolution and character of these poleis' cityscapes and the effect they had on ancient observers. By doing so, a greater understanding of the overall cityscapes' contemporary meaning and the impact of these public displays will be gained.