School of Historical and Philosophical Studies - Theses
Permanent URI for this collection
Search Results
1 - 10 of 19
-
ItemThe settlement of Melbourne 1851-1893: selected aspects of urban growth( 1970-02)Melbourne was the obvious choice as a prototype of a nineteenth century colonial city in the following study in urban history. It succeeded early to a pre-eminent position within Victoria, indeed of the entire Australian continent and its position of supremacy went unchallenged until the twentieth century. It was never seriously threatened by the claims of rival cities such as Ballarat, Sandhurst or Geelong. In this respect, Melbourne was a classic primate city with a whole-state hinterland and was justly described as "the commercial metropolis of the South". Its favourable geographic location, centrally placed between eastern and western halves of the colony, together with its position at the northern end of Port Phillip Bay provided the logical point of convergance for a railway network spanning the reaches of the interior. This gave a nodal quality to the city which made it the sole effective input-output point for all commerce with the mainland interior.(For complete abstract open document)
-
ItemSome aspects of the development of the metal trades in Ballarat 1851-1901( 1971-08)This thesis is an attempt to provide a special examination centering on some aspects on the development of metal processing and fabricating industries in the Victorian gold mining town of Ballarat from its foundation in 1851 to the end of its first half century in 1901. It is in effect a case study of a particular group of manufacturing activities made with the intention of improving general historians' understanding of the forces behind the establishment and growth of secondary industries in the non-metropolitan towns of nineteenth century Australia.
-
ItemGroups in Victorian politics, 1889-1894( 1963-12)To most Australian historians, the political history of Victoria during the final decades of the nineteenth century is a closed book. Except for the considerable attention bestowed on the labor party, which was after all of minor importance in Victoria until the early years of this century, few historians indeed have ventured to comment even briefly on this colony’s political life.
-
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.
-
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.
-
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)
-
ItemCoranderrk Aboriginal station: a case study in the disruption of Aboriginal society in Victoria( 1976)No abstract available
-
ItemHow the south-east was held: aspects of the quadripartite interaction of Mount Gambier, Portland, Adelaide and Melbourne 1860-1917( 1977)This thesis examines aspects of the "perennial theme of discussion", acknowledging the involvement of four participants, viz., Mt. Gambier, Portland, Adelaide and Melbourne. The assertion of regional generality was supported by the fact that between 1866 and 1921 the Mt. Gambier district rarely contained less than 39% of the total population of the South-East of South Australia. Indeed, in 1911, over 48% of the region's population lived in the vicinity of Mt. Gambier. Furthermore, as Hirst noted, Mt. Gambier was the only old South Australian country town to maintain a steady rate of growth between 1870 and 1917. These facts contributed to the belief, to be longheld by both Adelaide and Melbourne, that Mt. Gambier was the key to the South-East of South Australia. The holding of Mt. Gambier was then thought to be a necessary precursor to the holding of the South-East. Learmonth and Logan have each produced very useful studies of the Victorian port of Portland and its hinterland. Their perceptions, however, remain essentially "Victorian". While the proximity of the border between Victoria and South Australia was acknowledged, no rigorous attempt was made to study historically its regional influence. This thesis also aims to remedy that situation. (From introduction)
-
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.
-
ItemThe early history of the Diamond Valley, 1836-1854( 1969)“History,” said Francis Bacon, “maketh men wise.”, and whether the historian’s matter be a wide-ranging study of civilizations or a local history on the smallest scale, I believe this is the primary aim he must keep clearly before him. History is a purposeful discipline, motivated and directed by this objective. From an examination of the past the historian seeks wisdom for the present; this is the ultimate criterion of all historical writing and all historiographic values and judgements are tributary to it. The study and writing of history is both a science and an art. As a scientist the historian seeks out and balances his source materials, evaluates their validity, and analyses them to determine the facts of the past. But the history he writes must go further than a bare recital of facts which is a dull product, sterile of wisdom. My experience in this work is that the study of history becomes ultimately an act of understanding by a creative imagination and a disciplined mind, steeped in the facts of the past, and keenly aware of the present, and this has been my objective. History is no less scientific or “true” because it is an imaginative re-creation: contemporary writers on the method of the physical sciences make a very similar claim for their disciplines. History is about the men of the past whose thoughts and ideas rough-hewed our destiny, and our minds can be schooled to reach back to their times just as their best minds stretch forward towards us. Like a physical science, history is always a transitional understanding. The disciplined and creative historian with the hindsight of a century may perceive within the ideas and actions of the past significant developments germane to his purpose that were indiscernible to all but the acutest minds of the period he is studying. These may be nowhere explicitly recorded in the documents, for the men of the past were no more able than we ourselves to foresee what meaning future generations might be seeking from the records of their times. Documentary sources may provide specific statements of men’s conscious objectives and motives in the past, but each historian’s research, directed by his quest for wisdom in his own day, sets them in a new context, ae meaning which a later age reads from the record of men’s attested deeds and stated policies may be very different from that which their authors attributed to them. Thus there can be no comprehensive final understanding of the past. In every age men will re-write their history to answer the questions of their time, seeking wisdom from the past to bring order into the confusion of the present, by adding to it a perspective, a proportion, a direction, and a rationale. To attain an insight into our past is to illuminate our present and give us the priceless wisdom to know ourselves and shape our destiny. The writing of history is an art. The historian who seeks to convey to other men what he has found in his studies will require all the artistry he can command to tell his story well within the discipline which historiography prescribes. He must communicate to the minds of his readers a re-creation of the past that gives meaning to the present. He must be aware that his selection and marshalling of facts and his allocation of emphases are swayed by subjective considerations and by the questions of his own time which he is seeking to answer, and that these inevitably bias the history he writes. Finally, since a historian’s primary obligation is to be correct about what happened in the past, he must take care that his bias does not falsify the accuracy of the whole. His task becomes a delicate gauging and balancing of priorities. He cannot tell the whole truth, but he is required to tell nothing but the truth and not to distort the remainder. (From Introduction)