School of Historical and Philosophical Studies - Theses
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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)
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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)
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ItemCoranderrk Aboriginal station: a case study in the disruption of Aboriginal society in Victoria( 1976)No abstract available
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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)
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ItemLabor politics in Coburg 1919-1940( 1978)This study examines the activities and attitudes of the Coburg branch of the ALP (Victorian Branch) over the years 1919 to 1940 with particular emphasis on relations between the branch and the Central Executive, and the political representatives of the area. Until the mid 1920's branch attention was focussed principally on local activities capitalising on the strengthening Labor vote in the district, but it was already an assertive and ambitious branch. By the end of the decade the district was safe for Labor but success in municipal elections proved elusive and as the first signs of the depression appeared the branch came under the dominant influence of a group whose major concerns were international politics and socialism. Appalled at the performance of Labor Governments and radicalised by their experience of the depression the branch became extremely critical of Labor Party leadership and profoundly frustrated by its failure to provide opportunities for effective action - even to assist the unemployed. The leadership survived the crises of these years more or less intact but in the eyes of the Coburg branch it was seriously discredited. With the fall of Labor in Victoria the branch turned its attention to the Movement Against War and Fascism resulting in a series of escalating conflicts with the Central Executive which continued to moved towards the right throughout the thirties while the Coburg branch became more left-wing. In the polarisation of the ALP following the Spanish Civil War the Coburg branch became the focus of 'anti-Communist' forces whose dubious activities were more or less condoned by the Central Executive. Loyalty to the ALP however ran deep and it was not until the Central Executive cancelled the pre-selection ballot for the state seat of Coburg in 1940 that a number of activists finally decided to challenge the Party by putting forward an ‘independent' Labor candidate. Charles Mutton was successful and he held the seat until he was re-admitted to the ALP in 1956 and thereafter till he retired in 1967.
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ItemInstability in governments and parties in Victoria in the 1920s( 1975)While many books and theses have been written about Federal politics, in the 1920s, and about Federal political figures, nothing substantial has yet been written about the Victorian Politics in the same period. Federal politics, as happened repeatedly in the events of the 1920s, have overshadowed the State in the historiography of the period also. The consequence for the researcher is a complete dearth of secondary material. In the absence of any specific historical account of Victoria in the 1920s, secondary source material amounts to: brief references in the fast chronological gallop of a Centennial History; the early years of a biography of a politician who made his mark in Federal politics; or the analysis, usually statistical, of a political scientist who seeks rather to generalise about the Australian scene as a whole. Unfortunately, the same concentration on Federal politics also affects the survival of manuscript material. Very few of the Victorian politicians or their associates have left private papers. The papers of H.W.S. Lawson, Premier 1918-24, were burnt by his son when he died in 1952. The very few who have left papers seem to have retained letters of sympathy or congratulation to the exclusion of much else. This was certainly the case with Sir William McPherson, M.L.A. 1913-1930, and Premier 1928-29. Thus, to gain clues about the behind-the-scenes negotiations and events of the period has been extremely difficult. The complete disappearance of all the official papers of the Nationalist Party compounds the difficulty, the more because they were less inclined than the Country Party or the Labor Party to air their internal dealings in public. The papers of F.W. Eggleston and J. Hume Cook, in the National Library, Canberra, proved invaluable for the period 1917-1924, in the Nationalist Party, but there are no similar sources for the second half of the decade. This shortage of manuscript material has entailed a concentration on newspapers and parliamentary material. The events of Victorian politics, since Federation, but particularly since 1914, have been shrouded in obscurity. My first task was the essential one of finding out what actually happened. For events in the Country Party, B.D. Graham’s “The Formation of the Australian Country Parties” was invaluable. In the absence of any work at all on the Victorian Nationalist Party, I have had to trace the emergence of the Victorian Party in the 1901-17 period and before, as well as its behaviour in the decade of the 1920s. This has meant, in this thesis, a much longer account of the role of the Nationalist Party, than of the Country Party – not because the Nationalist Party was necessarily more important in the political instability of the period, but simply because so much less has previously been know about it. (From Introduction)
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ItemVictoria at war 1899-1902: aspects of the colonial involvement in the South African War( 1977)Most writings of the South African War, 1899-1902, have stressed either the triumph of British arms, or the unjust nature of the war, but not the contribution made by the volunteers from the colonies. This thesis reconstructs aspects of Victoria’s participation in the South African War, examines the effects of the involvement on the government, the people, and the economy, and attempts to rectify some misconceptions which appear to have arisen in connection with the Colonials.