School of Geography - Theses

Permanent URI for this collection

Search Results

Now showing 1 - 5 of 5
  • Item
    Thumbnail Image
    The influence of vessels and their trades on port landscapes in the southern ports region of Australia
    Pemberton, Barry M. ( 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.
  • Item
    Thumbnail Image
    The development of the Port of Melbourne 1877-1971
    Yarnasarn, Sanay ( 1974)
    The main purpose of this study is to describe and explain the physical and commercial development of the Port of Melbourne in the period 1877-1971. The year 1877 has been selected for the beginning of the study because it was the year in which the Melbourne Harbor Trust was established. The port has been modified in several ways since then and is now one of the most modern and best-equipped in the world. In tracing the port's evolution for nearly a century, the writer has tried to examine those factors, both human and physical, which have influenced its growth - world economic and political conditions, economic activities in its hinterland, policy decisions of the port authority and the national government and site conditions. The study does not encompass merely the physical development of the port, but also changes and trends in its trade and shipping. In addition, an attempt has been made to investigate those problems connected with the port's development. The growth and expansion of the manufacturing industries in the port district have also been considered. As well as these, the physical setting of the port, the discovery of Port Phillip Bay, Hobson's Bay and the River Yarra, the geology of the Yarra Delta, the condition of the port before 1877 and the genesis of the Melbourne Harbor Trust have been briefly referred to.
  • Item
  • Item
    Thumbnail Image
    The Port Melbourne condition: normative geographies of legitimation for urban development
    Batten, David Clark ( 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
  • Item
    Thumbnail Image
    The internal and external relations of the ports of Victoria with special reference to Melbourne
    Britton, John N. H ( 1964)
    This study, emphasising the prime position of the port of Melbourne in handling Victoria's imports and exports, aims to distinguish the functional characteristics of this "capital port". A study of the internal and external relations of Geelong and Portland has been added to that of Melbourne so that a comparison between its characteristics and those of smaller, and functionally-more-specialised, ports is possible. In addition, consideration of the three ports makes possible a regional port-geography; a study that seems fitting for this first detailed examination of the hinterlands and forelands of an Australian "capital port".