School of Historical and Philosophical Studies - Theses

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The history of the defence forces of the Port Phillip District and Colony of Victoria 1836 - 1900

Millar, T. B. ( 1957)

In this atomic age, the security of a nation is effected in many ways. The gift of a shipload of wheat, the discovery of a rare mineral, the raising or lowering of a trade barrier, and the political speech of a very important person at a very unimportant dinner have their influence on security as surely as the defence pact or the military training programme. With the new settlement at Port Phillip in 1836 there were no such complications. The British navy protected it from without, the British army from within, and no other major power felt the strength or the need to risk war with Britain for the sake of an infant colony twelve thousand miles distant. The settlement itself was too insignificant to have an influence on world affairs of the time. Yet if it had no influence on the world, it was influenced by the world. A stone cast into the political waters of Europe sent ripples to the shores of Port Phillip. …