School of Historical and Philosophical Studies - Theses

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    Neither bad nor mad : the competing discourses of psychiatry, law and politics
    Greig, Deidre Ngaio ( 1999)
    Garry David's dramatic threats of violence against individuals and the community, as well as his acts of gross self-mutilation, set in train a discourse between psychiatry, the law and politics, which focused on the place of the severely personality-disordered in the institutional context. The Victorian Labor Government's determination to detain him in custody, in the absence of either criminality or a legally-defined mental illness, tested the way in which the historically uncertain boundary between 'madness and 'badness' is drawn, as well as the differences between the concept of a mental illness and a mental disorder. It is argued that Garry shared many of the characteristics of other personality-disordered prisoners', who are ultimately released and, therefore, the reasons for his preventive detention and singular actions of the Government need to be understood, especially in the light of the social justice strategies, which had enhanced the rights of mentally disordered offenders by limiting their detention in custody. A major theme explores why he was singled out, and the significance of the Government's decision to proceed with the implementation of 'one-person' legislation, which was clumsily drafted, out of step with fundamental legal principles, and came dangerously close to making him a martyr through the exercise of powers of attainder. A sub-theme considers the interaction between psychiatry and the law, particularly in the courtroom, and the different way in which each discipline constructs its response to the same problem. It was concluded that the state's unusual action was triggered by the coalescence of a number of factors, rather than any clear demonstration of Garry David's propensity for dangerousness, apart from his sel-mutilation. Of particular importance were: the arousal of intuitive fears about dangerous persons in the wake of some recent multiple killings; the Government's need to reaffirm its support for the Victoria Police; the influence of structural changes within forensic psychiatry; and finally, the way in which Garry's dramatic and articulate threats were intensified by his ability to violate his own body and by his unusual tenacity in resisting carceral pressure. The legacy of Garry David was three fold: more general preventive detention legislation was implemented under the provisions of the Sentencing Act 1991 (Vic); a niche was created for the treatment of some of the more severely personality-disordered; and the High. Court of Australia rejected singular legislation for dangerous persons. This case is a palpable demonstration of the need to safeguard the traditional distinction between the Executive and Judiciary, and it points to the inadvisability of governments directly intervening in professional areas of decision-making.
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    The provision of hospital care in country Victoria 1840's to 1940s
    Collins, Yolande M.J ( 1999)
    Many hospital histories have been written whose authors have usually made exaggerated claims about the significance of individual hospitals. This narrow approach fails to take into account the influences of ideological and economic changes such as the rise of the Labour movement between 1890 and 1915, the erosion of the charitable ideal, the secularisation of Australian society and the increased acceptance of certain welfare provisions as a right rather than a privilege. This results in some misconceptions and a blinkered view of hospital development. A comparative analysis of how country hospitals were administered during this early founding period is important because it reveals that prior to 1862, three categories of hospitals were established, namely, working men's hospitals, custodial or hospital/benevolent institutions and semi-voluntary hospitals. All were controlled by hospital committees dominated by lay community leaders. Country hospitals provided an important focus for small communities with hospital committees defending their independence and resisting attempts by central authorities to wrest administrative control from them. The control exerted by an increasingly centralist State government over hospitals in country Victoria (heavily influenced by the medical profession), hindered their development to a greater degree than those in metropolitan areas. The mechanisms for achieving this were the enforcement of the Appropriation Acts from 1862 and the rigid implementation of the 1923 Hospital and Charities Act. Both of these kept hospitals tied to the voluntary/philanthropic model (or semi-voluntary model because charities received significant funding from the state) until the 1930s thereby delaying the establishment of more viable community hospitals. After the early 1930s, a transition from charities to community hospitals occurred. A major source of their concern was the already inequitable levels of funding compared to metropolitan hospitals. This inequity meant that Hospital Committees spent much time raising funds through enlisting subscribers, fund-raising and soliciting bequests. Their first collective action was the formation of the Country Hospitals Association in 1918. The number of charitable hospitals in country Victoria grew rapidly from fourteen in 1859 to thirty-four in 1891 and sixty-one in 1923. In that year there were also 476 private hospitals, which prior to the 1890s were little more than nursing homes. Whilst the Charities Board sought to control the spread of public hospitals, hospitals established by the Bush Nursing Association proliferated outside their control, leading to conflict between the Board and the Association. Funding for public hospitals dropped significantly between the 1890s and 1930s. At the same time there was an increase in the demand for beds in public hospitals by the lower middle classes who found private hospital costs prohibitive and wanted the higher standard of care provided in public hospital facilities. An increased dependence on medical technology led to an urgent need for the upgrading of Victorian country hospitals' technologically obsolete equipment. Additionally, Victorian hospitals were heavily influenced by North American views on efficiency and standardisation. Finally, the impetus to improve hospitals came in the 1930s when unemployment relief funds and a gambling tax levy subsidised new hospital facilities.
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    The Australian Railways Union: railway management and railway work in Victoria 1920-1939
    Churchward, Alison Ruth ( 1989)
    This thesis takes the Australian Railways Union as a focus for an examination of the Victorian Railways between the two World Wars. The development of the union is traced through the optimistic expectations of the early 1920s, the disillusionment which followed the union’s affiliation with the ALP and registration under the Commonwealth Arbitration Court, to the increasing polarisation of the union on political lines as the 1930s progressed. At the same time the union’s relations with, railway management are explored. The innovative management style of Harold Winthrop Clapp, whose term as Chief Railways Commissioner covered the two decades under discussion in this thesis, is examined and set in the context of developments elsewhere in Australia and overseas. The repercussions of Clapp’s administrative and technological changes in railway work are discussed throughout the thesis, and particular attention is paid to the relationship between such changes and job loss. The problems arising from lack of clarity over control of the Railways Department, which are also examined in a separate chapter, were common to other statutory authorities as well. The financial situation of the railways is discussed in relation to that of other Australian railways. The problem of transport regulation to prevent uneconomic competition between motor transport and railways, which received growing recognition during the period of this thesis, also receives special attention. During the Great Depression, the Victorian Railways Department and the ARU played a central role in the national arena. The railway basic wage case of 1930, which resulted in a ten per cent cut in wages, set a precedent for all major industries. The analysis of transcripts of this lengthy case has produced much which is of general significance for economic and labour history. In the final chapters of the thesis, the ARU is shown approaching the radicalism of the 1940s, when large scale industrial action was carried out under Communist leadership. The union in 1939, following two decades of activity as part of a federal railways union, and experience of arbitration and affiliation to the ALP, was very different from the union which had existed up until 1920 in Victoria, with its narrow sphere of activity bounded by ‘the railway fence’, and this thesis explores that transition.
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    Vagrancy and the Victorians: the social construction of the vagrant in Melbourne, 1880-1907
    Davies, Susanne Elizabeth ( 1990)
    In Melbourne between 1880 and 1907, the construction and propagation of a vagrant stereotype and its manifestation in law, constituted an important means of controlling the behaviour of individuals and groups who were perceived to be socially undesirable or economically burdensome.
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    The state of modern Greek language as spoken in Victoria
    Tamis, Anastasios ( 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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    Reading and after: literary community, identity and practice in Melbourne circa 1886-1910
    Emery, Victoria Marion ( 1998)
    The period around the turn of the century saw a remarkable flowering of literary activity in Melbourne, marked by enthusiastic participation in the reading, writing and performance of literature. These activities were formed around a combination of historical, pedagogical moral and social models, and acted as significant markers of personal and communal values and cultural prestige. On one level these activities mark a response to tensions brought about by the shift in the nature of the reading public and the mass media in the nineteenth century. In a period of increased accessibility of literature, barriers were put in place to determine the validity of literary experience, and maintain its status as an elite form. On another level, the forms which they took and the meanings which they represented, were a direct response to local social forms and practices. It was possible for the self-educated and the unprivileged to redefine themselves by their knowledge of literature and its practices. The incorporation of the ideology of reading into social life and communal belief systems meant that these ideas and values operated differently in respect of different social groups. This thesis brings together a variety of aspects of print reception culture in Melbourne, in particular the differences which gender, class and religious affiliation could make to expectations and experiences of reading and writing. The different forms which these responses could generate even within a circumscribed historical and geographical region mark patterns of convergence between aspects of the literary and their social and political contexts.
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    The Victorian Labor Party, 1885-1894
    Sagazio, Celestina ( 1984)
    The Victorian labor party, compared with its counterparts in the other colonies, had a retarded development as a distinct and independent radical party. It was smaller in number and played less of a role in forming and making ministries by August 1894. Victorian labor's slow growth was due to the strong grip of the liberal reform tradition with its progressive and strong liberal party of the 1870's, which advocated radical reforms, such as protection and land taxes, that appeased the workers. And labor was largely overshadowed by and relied on the leading liberals' stronger electoral appeal, legislative initiatives and performance in parliament, which continued into the 1890' s. Liberalism’s attraction ensured that, from the birth of the labor party, labor would see itself as an ally of the liberal party, fragmented and disunited as it was from the mid - 1880's, and as a separate, radical force within the liberal reform tradition, as well as a totally independent radical party of the workers and unionists, who had not been properly represented by the liberals. The other main factors in labor's lack of strength were the party's limited appeal to only a section of the working class (artisans rather than miners, rural workers and non-unionists), the party's lack of financial and organizational independence in depressed times, the rampant apathy and divisions within its ranks, the union movement and the working class, and the peculiarities of the unfair electoral system. But the labor party, as defined, had earlier origins (1885) and was more independent of and influenced the liberals than has previously been supposed. It was influential in having its policies adopted or supported in and out of parliament and in moulding, to some degree, Victoria's political system. Contrary to the view that the THC and craft unions were uninterested in direct representation of labor, it was the Melbourne craft and semi-skilled unions, rather than the new unions of Shearers and Miners, which were the most interested and active of all the other trade unions in forming and furthering support for the labor party. Although the Sydney Trades and Labour Council played a bigger role in forming the largest labor party in 1891, the THC had a larger part in initiating the party from 1885 and controlling the PPL at the top levels than has previously been thought. At the 1886 and 1889 elections, the labor candidates showed the magnetism of liberalism by using labor and liberal titles interchangeably and espousing the same major policies. But they were distinguished by having their own committees, receiving union and unofficial THC support, and pushing for specific grievances and interests, especially protectionist, of the skilled workers or THC, as well as their own. The maritime strike of 1890 was not a turning point in the moves for direct representation, then, as moves had started in the eighties, but it served, like the depression, as a great impetus by helping to radicalize the workers into wanting greater representation and more reforms. Before June 1891 Victorian labor, with three parliamentary members, had achieved very little success in obtaining labor legislation; but, in this, it was in a similar position to its counterparts in the other colonies, and, indeed, it was in a stronger numerical position in parliament than N.S.W. labor at that time. Between 1891 and 1894 labor's influence in and out of parliament grew and it helped to shape the modest beginnings of a modern political party system, as party lines, although still somewhat loose, became more defined and polarized. Victorian labor was not as significant in moulding the party system as its counterparts in the other colonies. They were numerically larger, and so were a major third party or a partner in a ministry, and labor and anti-labor lines were more pronounced in those colonies. But it had a larger role in shaping politics up to August 1894 than has been argued by writers. In 1891 the labor party had introduced some new features. The pledge resulted in the party's higher unity in voting than other parties in the Assembly in 1892. Its extra-parliamentary organization, although not as elaborate as that of the old liberal party of the 1870's, was unique in that it was larger than that of other Victorian parties, was based upon union support and most of its executive and parliamentary representatives were from union and THC ranks. Labor was more radical than liberal in wanting more urgently the enactment of further protection, which was a dividing line between them from the eighties, the end of subletting and the introduction of a minimum wage, the legalization of eight hours, one man one vote, conciliation and arbitration, a higher income tax and other taxes, land nationalization, and some banking and financial reforms. Accordingly, there was much agitation in and out of parliament, especially between 1892 and 1894. Because of its significant influence upon the Shiels government in regard to taxation, especially the increased customs duties, labor was indirectly responsible for the fall of the liberal government, as many liberals deserted supporting it and voted for the conservative Patterson government. Labor was largely responsible for the conservatives' uniting in and out of parliament. The conservatives became the most cohesive group in parliament, as party lines deepened between liberal and conservative. As protection and other policies were placed in jeopardy or were not enacted, labor drew closer to the liberal forces to unite in order to defend these policies and helped to oust the Patterson regime in 1894.
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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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    The itinerary of our days: the historical experience of the street in Melbourne, 1837-1923
    BROWN-MAY, ANDREW ( 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.
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    Secret sorrows: a social history of suicide in Victoria, 1841-1921
    Cooke, Simon John ( 1998)
    The modern approach to suicide in Victoria had fallen into place by World War One. By then, the inquests held into deaths by suicide bore little resemblance to the traditional common-law procedure. Professional coroners or police magistrates had taken over from amateur coroners and juries of twelve. Inquests in Melbourne were no longer held in hotels, but at a custom-built morgue with facilities for post mortem. The police played a pivotal role, not because they necessarily considered suicide a terrible crime, but because they had become part of the administrative machinery of the state. With the abolition of punishments for suicide, the purpose of the inquest became description of the cause of death and the characteristics of the deceased on the death certificate. Institutionally, suicide became morally neutral and was treated the same as any other cause of death. At the same time that institutional change was thus re-making the way in which Victorians dealt with suicide, popular attitudes to suicide were also in flux. Old understandings of the role that religious despair played in formulating the desire to die, already in retreat by the early nineteenth century, were replaced by the popular belief that suicide was precipitated by madness. A third way of understanding suicide also emerged during the nineteenth century, in which suicide was a sign of neither madness nor sinfulness, but an understandable response to suffering which did not need to be explained. There are also signs that suicide was becoming impossible to interpret. Even most suicides who left notes did not try to explain the way they felt; perhaps they could not explain it even to themselves. The sociology of suicide, epitomised by Durkheim's research, was one response to uncertainty in the face of suicide. As a region of recent white settlement, colonial Victoria was demographically very different from European countries where sociological theories of suicide were developed. Immigration during the gold-rushes meant that family life in nineteenth-century Victoria was shaped by the ageing of an immigrant population. Clearly, this social structure shaped patterns of suicide in Victoria. But the study of Victorian suicide rates also shows how resistant they were to social change. One reason for this is that suicide rates are shaped by culture as well as by social structure. The differences between the suicide rates of young and old, and of men and women, can be more credibly accounted for by a study of their meanings than by their position in the social structure.