School of Historical and Philosophical Studies - Theses

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    Collection, collation & creation: girls and their material culture Victoria, 1870-1910
    Gay, Catherine ( 2018)
    The thesis broadly explores the lives of girls who resided in the colony/state of Victoria, Australia between 1870 and 1910. A largely understudied and underappreciated area of historical study, the thesis takes a broad scope. Three case studies- urban girls’ collection of dolls, rural girls’ collation of scrapbooks, and Indigenous Victorian girls’ creation of fibrecraft- illustrate that tangible material culture can serve as evidence for intangible and marginalised histories. It overarchingly contended that girls, in any historical period, can express agency and resilience, individuality and creativity, through their material culture. In interacting with their day-to-day, seemingly mundane things, girls challenged, however subtly, repressive societal ideals that attempted to circumscribe their identities and their lives.
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    The prison and society in colonial Victoria: labour, deterrence and reform at Pentridge, 1857-1870
    Hill, James Robert ( 2014)
    Victoria's penal establishments underwent radical changes between 1857 and 1870, resulting in the replacement of disorderly hulks and stockades with a modern prison system. This thesis details how the resulting programme of penal discipline that was instituted at Pentridge, Victoria's chief prison, combined deterrence with labour. The aim of this new disciplinary regime was make the prisoners into productive and useful workers by instilling in them a strong work ethic and convincing them that honest labour was preferable to the hardships of imprisonment. It is argued that this system was shaped by the social and economic context of Victoria and by Inspector-General William Champ's background and experience in the management of transported convicts. In addition, it is established that such large reforms came about because of the favourable social and political climate of Victoria during the 1850s. The findings of this thesis situate Pentridge within the broader narrative of Victorian history, and challenge previous historical work by revealing Victoria's penal history to be clearly distinct from that of England.