School of Culture and Communication - Theses
Permanent URI for this collection
Search Results
1 - 1 of 1
-
ItemJames Blackburn: civil engineer, surveyor and architect: his life and work in Van Diemen's Land (1833-1849)( 1970)The theme of this thesis is the elucidation in detail of the life of an early Australian professional mana and convict – in a sense – made good, and to discuss his projected and remaining achievement in Tasmania – with special emphasis (as this thesis is submitted within the domain of local Art History rather than in the wider field of Australian History) on his architectural work. At the time of commencement (1956-57) this combination of full-scale biography from primary source material with a professionally-orientated survey of a man’s life work was totally new to the Australian visual arts. Biographies such as a life of Francis Greenway by M.H. Ellis (1949) for instance, contained no analysis, comprehension or even real consideration of the only thing, ultimately, which made Greenway worth writing about for a serious audience – his architecture. There is still extremely little of this duality as far as nineteenth century artists are concerned, and none whatsoever in the field of early architecture. The concern here, as expressed in the title, is with James Blackburn’s life and work in the island of Tasmania – the “set task” (admittedly a self-chosen one) expires, in fact, in the year 1849 when he settled permanently in what was to become the State of Victoria. An epilogue has, notwithstanding, been appended both to round off the biographical narrative and to include for anyone interested such information as has been obtained with brief and desultory spare-time explorations outside the periods of research of the main bulk of the thesis text. A sustained and prolonged onslaught would not alter the outlines of Blackburn’s life in Melbourne, but might (and might not) give more details of his schemes and yield further undertakings as City Surveyor. If it be borne in mind that prior to this investigation the only three statements which had been made about Blackburn in Melbourne were to the effect that he was “Father of the Melbourne Water Supply” and that he died in 1852 after falling from a horse (the latter two inaccurate) it will be seen that a reasonable expansion of knowledge has been achieved, and the last chapter many not appear objectionably gratuitous in this context. (From Introduction)