School of Geography - Theses
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ItemThe evolution and significance of selected intra-national boundaries in south-western Victoria( 1963)This thesis has four major aims and, in order to achieve them, the intra-national boundaries found in south-western Victoria have been used as case-studies. Firstly, an attempt has been made to further the classification of political boundaries at the intra-national level. Secondly, the'evolution' and 'significance' approaches conventionally favoured by political geographers in international boundary studies have been adopted to test their usefulness at this lower level. Thirdly, the application to these boundaries of certain analytical techniques devised to discover the significance of higher order boundaries has also been tested. Lastly, the main characteristics of the specific examples in the case-area are described. The boundaries have been classified into 'legal' and 'functional' groups, and the important distinction is made between the first's role of delimiting the areal extent of the authority of the legislative and judicial aspects of go government, and the second's role of delimiting the extent of the authority of the executive aspects. The areas in which the two forms of authority operate do not necessarily coincide. The categories are further refined. Two kinds of legal boundaries exist in the case-area: the interstate boundary between Victoria and South Australia, and the boundaries of the local government areas. Three major kinds of functional boundaries are discussed: the boundaries which enclose functions actually performed in the field, the boundaries of statistical units, and the boundaries of areas established for research and advisory purposes. Each category has passed through separate and variant evolutionary processes and exerts a different degree of influence upon the geographical landscape. At present none of the 'boundaries discussed has any significant barrier effect upon the movement of persons, trading commodities, capital, or ideas. They merely divide the developmental policies of the various departments and instrumentalities of the central and local governments. The interstate boundary has the most effect upon the border landscape, and the techniques developed to isolate and analyse this are relatively successful at the interstate level. The statistical and advisory-research boundaries have the least environmental significance. Excepting the state boundary, these intra-national boundaries are difficult to locate in the field, and interviewing samples showed that the border residents of each type were unaware of their presence. Interstate and local government boundaries are well documented with respect to the evolution of their position, definition and function, but the functional boundaries are in general undocumented. The evolution of many of them cannot, therefore, be traced in detail. As a result of this study, the author has been led to question the value of these two approaches with regard to the functional boundaries.