Opening up of Australian settlement the democratizing and nationalizing effect It illustrates the importance of land speculators in the early This is a competent account of the development Having complained about the book Mr Garden did not write it remains toĭescribe what he has written. History will sympathize with the time and effort expended by Mr Garden inĪcquiring material, but there remains a strong conviction that the materialĬould have been better used and more illuminatingly interpreted. Anyone who has battled through the uncharted bush areas of Australian And despiteĪ valiant, if limited, attempt in Chapter 4 to deal with the lesser people of theĭistrict, the first half of the book is really about land subdivision, not about Traditional historian's disregard of theory as a theory in itself. Processes involved in creating a new community unless, that is, one counts the
There is little sense of the geographical, social and economic It is regrettably symptomatic of the parochialism which still tooįrequently afflicts Australian history that Mr Garden seems completely unaware of developments in the theory and the writin g of urban history in Europe Sudbury or Boston or of Western towns have shown how brilliantly such workĬan be done. Parallel to the Australian experience, which is in many ways different fromĮuropean urban development and studies of colonial New England towns like In the hands of the skilful and imaginative such investigations can be of enormous value. They provide a neatly delimitedĪrea, and a manageable quantity of primary source material for the inexperienced researcher. Such studies of suburbs or small towns have become increasingly popular as subjects for fourthyear undergraduate or postgraduate theses. History of Heidelberg, now a suburb of Victoria's capital, Melbourne, from itsįoundation in 1838 till the end of the nineteenth century. Advances will have to take place by the more intensive study of smallĪreas - either in time, space or theme. History of Australia is not monolithic, but varies considerably from state to Massachusetts, and the Meaning of Community,ġ840–1880.