School of Geography - Theses
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ItemThe influence of vessels and their trades on port landscapes in the southern ports region of Australia( 2002)This thesis argues that there is a connection between ships and port landscapes in the Southern Port Region of Australia - Victorian and Tasmanian seaports. The study investigates the types of vessels that have called over time, the designs of those vessels, and the berths that they have used. A strong link has been found between them. The thesis is structured in two parts. In the first part four case studies are used to show examples of different eras in different physical situations handling various geographic scales of trade. Macquarie Harbour illustrates a sheltered port handling interstate and local traffic. Warrnambool illustrates an exposed ocean port handling coastal, interstate and overseas traffic. Wye River illustrates a small single jetty outport for the coastal trade, and Melbourne demonstrates a multi site and multifunctional port. In the second part the respective influence of passenger shipping and cargo shipping is discussed and compared for their era, trades, and design characteristics. A third theme chapter reviews the range of port landscapes present in the Southern Port Region over time. Vessel design and port requirements have been found to be a product of the differences between old conventional and modern specialist vessels, passenger and cargo vessels, and employment at local, coastal, interstate and overseas scales of trade. Whereas conventional ships had few individual berth requirements and therefore used a variety of general purpose piers and wharves, modern specialist ships need custom built berths or terminals. The loading and unloading of cargo has a stronger effect on berth design than does passenger transfer. Geographic scale of trade influences the size of the berth, the formation of shipping precincts in ports, and the length of stay at the berth. Together these have a definite influence over the spatial and temporal development of ports. Stages in berth and therefore port evolution have also been studied in this thesis. Analysis of the effects of cargo handling method and shipping traffic change reveals that some ports have kept pace and evolved accordingly while others have been by-passed and have either been abandoned or have reduced in traffic accordingly.
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ItemThe Port Melbourne condition: normative geographies of legitimation for urban development( 1994)This thesis argues that the legitimation of urban development projects is an important dimension to urbanisation as such. It argues that legitimation is the role of the discourse of urban development and as such is complementary to the more usual political economic or policy analyses of urban development. The local scale of development projects makes for a complex legitimation problem for State-sponsored development, because of the influence of local differences. A case study of a State sponsored major project, the Bayside Project in Melbourne, Australia (1984-1992) explores this proposal. The thesis uses the notion of normative geographies of legitimation to examine the discourse of Bayside from its procedural and substantive participatory dimensions, and for the definition of Port Melbourne that provides insight into the normative construction of places in development discourse. A normative geography defines what some space ought to be like. Normative geographies have forms both of expression and content. Expression has a normative geography in the public sphere of discourse, both from a procedural (when and where things happen, with whom) and a substantive point of view (who participates how and to what effect). Normative geographies of content are the definitions of places through the mobilisation of knowledge, and are frequently in conflict with other geographies of the same place. Analysis of these normative geographies in the case study of the Bayside Project reveals some interesting relations of power, especially as they relate to the use of the public sphere and its rules of operation. The Bayside project eventually collapsed and with it the State Government of Victoria. The whole saga was an exquisite example of the complexities of the relationship of legitimation and urban development. ii