This thesis is a social history of workplace Australian football between the years 1860 and 1939, charting in detail the evolution of this form of the game as a popular phenomenon, as well as the beginning of its eventual demise with changes in the nature and composition of the workforce. Though it is presented in a largely chronological format, the thesis utilises an approach to history best epitomised in the work of the progenitors of social history, E.P. Thompson and Eric Hobsbawm, and their successors. It embraces and contributes to both labour and sport history-two sub-groups of social history that are not often considered together. A number of themes, such as social control and the links between class and culture, are employed to throw light on this form of football; in turn, the analysis of the game presented here illuminates patterns of development in the culture of working people in Victoria and beyond. The thesis also provides new insights into under-re searched fields such as industrial recreation and the role of sport in shaping employer-employee relations. In enhancing knowledge of the history of grass roots Australian football and demonstrating the workplace game's links with the growth of unionism and expansion of industry, the thesis therefore highlights the complexity and interconnectedness of economic development, class relations and popular culture in constructing social history.

This monographic study examines the life of the Australian artist Harry Reade (1927-1998), and his largely overlooked contribution to animation within historical, social, political and cultural contexts of his time. The project constitutes a biography of Reade, tracing his life from his birth in 1927 through to his period of involvement with animation between 1956 and 1969. The biography examines the forces that shaped Reade and the ways in which he tried to shape his world through the medium of animation. It chronicles his experiences as a child living in impoverished conditions during the Great Depression, his early working life, the influence of left wing ideology on his creative development, and his contribution to animation with the Waterside Workers' Federation Film Unit, in Sydney. The study especially focuses on the period between 1961 and 1969 during which Reade supported the Cuban Revolution's social and cultural reform process by writing and directing animated films at the Instituto Cubano del Arte e Industria Cinematográficos (Cuban Institute of the Art and Industry of Cinema - ICAIC), in Havana. The thesis argues that Reade played a significant role in the development of Cuban animation during the early years of the Cuban Revolution. Further, his animated work in this cultural sphere was informed by a network of political alliances and social philosophies that were directly linked to his experiences and creative development in Australia. Theoretical approaches to biographical method and animation studies have been used to provide a cohesive framework for an investigation of Reade's life and animation work. The thesis also draws on Reade's autobiography and his animated works, oral histories, newspaper articles, press cartoons, illustrations, photographs, and official government archival documents. This project also has an archival purpose in collecting and compiling Reade's animation work onto CD.