School of Culture and Communication - Theses
Permanent URI for this collection
Search Results
1 - 3 of 3
-
ItemObject lessons: public history in Melbourne 1887-1935( 2000-05)The thesis studies history-making in Melbourne’s central civic sphere, from its emergence in the 1880s to its decline in the 1930s. It identifies public history’s major themes and forms, and the relationships between them, based on four main cases of history-making: the articulation of the past and history in Melbourne’s 1888 Centennial International Exhibition; the historical backgrounds, development, unveilings and partial after-lives of Sir Redmond Barry’s statue, unveiled in Swanston Street in 1887, and the Eight Hours’ Day monument, unveiled in Carpentaria Place in 1903; and history-making around Victoria’s 1934-1935 Centenary Celebrations, with special emphasis on the Shrine of Remembrance and a detailed study of Cooks’ Cottage.
-
ItemRecreating Batman's Hill: a study of urban development changes from 1835-2005( 2005)This thesis is a close study of planning developments on the Batman's Hill Precinct site, Docklands, Melbourne. It focuses on planning proposals, historical documents, descriptive texts and commemorational images to provide the first in-depth history of the Batman's Hill site from initial white settlement in 1835 to 2005. The repeated re-conceptualisation of Batman's Hill as a symbolic and historical place, and a site for urban development, was instrumental to the rapid growth of central Melbourne. The changes in land use facilitated the rapid growth of Melbourne from township to city. This detailed study of the planning and utilisation of the site of Batman's Hill enables a critique of how contemporary development on the Precinct has drawn upon colonial history to market this location. This thesis proposes that the history of Batman's Hill as the location of Melbourne's foundation, and the image of John Batman as Melbourne's founder, have been linked to the site's development at various times. This site has undergone many physical and zoning transformations that relate to the changing importance of Melbourne's cultural heritage for the public, and the need for industrial and transport facilities. Thus, public appreciation of the Batman's Hill site as a culturally significant location in Melbourne's urban history has fluctuated over time. From settlement in 1835, Batman's Hill was used for public recreation and was the first choice for the Melbourne Botanic Gardens. However, the rapid boom in population, as a result of the1850s goldrushes, put pressure on industrial, transport and building infrastructure. It was therefore rezoned to allow for railway and port expansion. Chapter One is a history of the effects of colonial governance on Batman's Hill. It details the change of Batman's Hill from a public space to an industrial zone. The industrialisation of Batman's Hill resulted in the removal of the elevated 'hill' in the late nineteenth century for the expansion of the Spencer Street railway lines. The name 'Batman's Hill' was still used although it was not consciously commemorating Melbourne's foundation or a hill. By the early twentieth century with Melbourne's centenary approaching, there was a renewed interest in reclaiming the identity of John Batman as the founder of Melbourne. Chapter Two discusses this period of industrial land use, and the reinvigoration of the image of Batman through the popular press and historical societies. Batman's Hill remained as an industrial area until the late twentieth century. The City of Melbourne's urban design agenda in the 1980s was to refocus the city's development toward the Yarra River and Port Phillip Bay. Such regeneration of docklands followed global urban design and planning trends. The history of Melbourne's foundation and John Batman, partially achieved in the early part of the twentieth century, was appropriated in the planning for residential development at Batman's Hill Precinct at the Melbourne Docklands. The use of this specific history within urban planning and marketing documents is discussed in Chapter Three. As the developers endeavour to reinstate Batman's Hill as Melbourne's 'Plymouth Rock', the place of 'first' white settlement by John Batman, the history of the site that is repackaged for the public is a fragmented one.
-
ItemChamber music audiences: access, participation and pleasure at Melbourne concerts( 2003)This thesis examines the social role of chamber music. It argues that in contemporary Australian society the chamber music audience is largely unobserved and under-theorised, and redresses this with a study of Melbourne concert audiences. An analysis of the chamber music 'scene(s)' in Melbourne finds that audience-ship is a socially constructed practice accessed through a particular habitus that facilitates participation and pleasure at concerts. In this way access and participation is acquired through social vehicles that exist outside the concert hall. The thesis also finds that chamber music is not simply one unified cultural form, but a diverse set of music genres and cross-fertilised forms with some striking differences in the audiences of ‘new music' concerts compared with other forms of chamber music. Through an analysis of survey data and self-narrated audience biographies the thesis demonstrates that, for those with the necessary habitus, chamber music constitutes an important source of cultural capital: it is a worthwhile object of desire, an indispensable and irreplaceable means of pleasure and happiness and plays a worthwhile role in the public and private lives of individuals. The habitus that facilitates an appreciation for chamber music is not available to everyone and in an era of confused egalitarianism this finding challenges the claim that access to the arts and high culture has been democratised. Particular cultural precursors arc necessary in order to derive access, participation and pleasure in high cultural events such as chamber music concerts. In this way access, participation and pleasure of chamber music remain off limits to most Australians.