A study of travel writing in Australian colonial history. Travel writing is a key mechanism by which readers learn about other peoples and cultures, a genre that is crucial to the formation of identities, ideologies, and ideas. Australian travel writing provided foundational texts for those emigrating to the colony. This project positions Australian texts within an international comparative sphere. It will advance the understanding of colonial culture in Australia, and of the perceptions and val ....A study of travel writing in Australian colonial history. Travel writing is a key mechanism by which readers learn about other peoples and cultures, a genre that is crucial to the formation of identities, ideologies, and ideas. Australian travel writing provided foundational texts for those emigrating to the colony. This project positions Australian texts within an international comparative sphere. It will advance the understanding of colonial culture in Australia, and of the perceptions and values of those who settled colonial Australia. It will make available to Australian and international students and researchers a rich archive of texts that have not been previously mapped. Australians are keenly interested in travel and its literature, and this project brings colonial travel texts to public attention.Read moreRead less
The 'paper war': Missionary Textuality and Early Nineteenth-Century Australian Colonial Culture. Early nineteenth-century Australian texts reverberate with the anxieties and controversies surrounding colonisation. The morality of colonisation and indigenous-settler relationships were hotly debated in a proliferation of books, pamphlets, letters, and editorials, and in this religious personnel, including missionaries, played a pivotal role. Yet no critical analysis of colonial missionary writing ....The 'paper war': Missionary Textuality and Early Nineteenth-Century Australian Colonial Culture. Early nineteenth-century Australian texts reverberate with the anxieties and controversies surrounding colonisation. The morality of colonisation and indigenous-settler relationships were hotly debated in a proliferation of books, pamphlets, letters, and editorials, and in this religious personnel, including missionaries, played a pivotal role. Yet no critical analysis of colonial missionary writing exists. This project conducts archival research into texts produced by a linked network of religious/missionary figures, focusing on the Lake Macquarie mission run by Lancelot Threlkeld, and analyses these through theories of colonial discourse and textuality. Research outcomes include original, innovative contributions to Australian literary/cultural studies and international colonial/postcolonial studies.Read moreRead less
The Construction of Race and Racial Identity at the Antipodes of Empire, 1788-1840. The view that Australia was always a racially based society, pursuing racial policies to the detriment of indigenous Australians and our Asian neighbours, is subject to rancorous national debate. Polemical assertion by high profile journalists that race was never a driving force in Australian history is not conducive to understanding complex history, nor are derogatory attacks on historians helpful in explaining ....The Construction of Race and Racial Identity at the Antipodes of Empire, 1788-1840. The view that Australia was always a racially based society, pursuing racial policies to the detriment of indigenous Australians and our Asian neighbours, is subject to rancorous national debate. Polemical assertion by high profile journalists that race was never a driving force in Australian history is not conducive to understanding complex history, nor are derogatory attacks on historians helpful in explaining the past to our neighbours. Whether colonial Australia was a race-based society remains to be established. With indigenous uncertainty over the demise of ATSIC and rising antagonism among our Islamic neighbours, there is need, as never before, for dispassionate scholarship to provide a complex interpretation of Australia's past.Read moreRead less
Travelling Home: A Study of Walkabout, Australia's Geographic Magazine (1934-74). Walkabout was one of mid-twentieth century's most popular magazines with a focus on inland Australia, as well as the Pacific region. It graced suburban lounge rooms, doctors' and dentists' surgeries, railway waiting rooms, ministerial offices, and school libraries. Walkabout's mixture of entertainment and education ensured its influence across a spectrum of readers: across age, class, and educational boundaries. Th ....Travelling Home: A Study of Walkabout, Australia's Geographic Magazine (1934-74). Walkabout was one of mid-twentieth century's most popular magazines with a focus on inland Australia, as well as the Pacific region. It graced suburban lounge rooms, doctors' and dentists' surgeries, railway waiting rooms, ministerial offices, and school libraries. Walkabout's mixture of entertainment and education ensured its influence across a spectrum of readers: across age, class, and educational boundaries. This project explores the role of Walkabout in the development of a modern national identity. Walkabout deliberately cultivated one of Australia's key modern economic foundations-the travel industry-and did so whilst also influencing knowledge formation and circulation. Read moreRead less
Reconstructing past population dynamics to understand human and climatic impacts in prehistory. More than 100 species have become extinct since humans first colonised Australia, and over 1000 are considered threatened. This research will determine the factors most strongly governing the interaction between humans and native fauna in Australia over the last 46 millennia. Our approach is powerful and novel because it will effectively draw together multidisciplinary evidence on natural resource exp ....Reconstructing past population dynamics to understand human and climatic impacts in prehistory. More than 100 species have become extinct since humans first colonised Australia, and over 1000 are considered threatened. This research will determine the factors most strongly governing the interaction between humans and native fauna in Australia over the last 46 millennia. Our approach is powerful and novel because it will effectively draw together multidisciplinary evidence on natural resource exploitation and habitat alteration by ancient people, and the influence of dramatic climatic shifts on the Australian biota. Information on past biological responses to environmental change is critical to properly contextualising the current impact, and long-term consequences of, threats such as global warming, habitat loss and invasive species.Read moreRead less
The global vaccination revolution: a transnational and comparative perspective. A study of first global immunization campaign will provide a historical dimension to contemporary concerns about pandemic disease, vaccination and bio-terrorism, and generate new insights into the factors determining the success and failure of public health initiatives. The project relates directly to national research priorities in health and safeguarding Australia. It has more specific relevance to Australia. Small ....The global vaccination revolution: a transnational and comparative perspective. A study of first global immunization campaign will provide a historical dimension to contemporary concerns about pandemic disease, vaccination and bio-terrorism, and generate new insights into the factors determining the success and failure of public health initiatives. The project relates directly to national research priorities in health and safeguarding Australia. It has more specific relevance to Australia. Smallpox decimated the Aboriginal population, and quarantine and vaccination have loomed large in Australian history. It builds on Australia's strong scholarship in the fields of virology and immunology and the history of disease and public health.Read moreRead less
Female Convicts as Women Travellers: an investigation into how the itineraries of convict experience affected life narratives. For convict women sent to Australia, ?transportation? meant international travel. By mapping the convicts as travellers, this project will afford a new perspective on women whose convict itineraries radically affected the direction of their lives. Alert to the specifics of time and place, the project investigates the carceral and non-carceral experiences of women whose s ....Female Convicts as Women Travellers: an investigation into how the itineraries of convict experience affected life narratives. For convict women sent to Australia, ?transportation? meant international travel. By mapping the convicts as travellers, this project will afford a new perspective on women whose convict itineraries radically affected the direction of their lives. Alert to the specifics of time and place, the project investigates the carceral and non-carceral experiences of women whose shared voyage as convicts was neither the beginning nor the end of their travels. The research involves a systematic cluster sampling of three ships which sailed to Van Diemen's Land while transportation was at its height: the Harmony (1829), Atwick (1838), and Elizabeth and Henry (1847). Read moreRead less
The Researching Editing and Publication of Historical Records of Australia. These will be two fold: first in continuing and completing the original Historical Records of Australia Series originally supported and promoted by the Commonwealth Parliamentary Library, shortly after Federation, thus using a Federation Fellowship to complete a great original Federation project; second by providing in edited research form as as described above, the vital historical documentation of historical proce ....The Researching Editing and Publication of Historical Records of Australia. These will be two fold: first in continuing and completing the original Historical Records of Australia Series originally supported and promoted by the Commonwealth Parliamentary Library, shortly after Federation, thus using a Federation Fellowship to complete a great original Federation project; second by providing in edited research form as as described above, the vital historical documentation of historical processes continuing in this country , especially in relation to the indigenous peoples of Australia, the governance of the states, and matters of crime, punishment and emigration which were at the heart of the political debates and developing policies of the era and which are matters of significance in present AustraliaRead moreRead less
Transatlantic slavery, the African diaspora and the unfree settlement of Australia, 1750-1850. This project breaks new ground in historical research and will open up areas of demographic and cultural history rarely understood by historians. By reading penal transportation as an aspect of the international traffic in unfree labour and its use as a form of control throughout the British colonies, as well as examining penal systems in relationship to coercive labour management in the Atlantic world ....Transatlantic slavery, the African diaspora and the unfree settlement of Australia, 1750-1850. This project breaks new ground in historical research and will open up areas of demographic and cultural history rarely understood by historians. By reading penal transportation as an aspect of the international traffic in unfree labour and its use as a form of control throughout the British colonies, as well as examining penal systems in relationship to coercive labour management in the Atlantic world, the project will make a significant contribution to research into the African Diaspora, slavery and colonial history. It will also facilitate an understanding the complexities of race-relations in Australia and help untangle contentious issues concerning Aboriginality.Read moreRead less