Abstract not available

This thesis is an attempt to reconstruct the physical environment of the Port Phillip area as it was at the time of first European arrival, ie. c.1800. At the time it was first encountered by Europeans, in 1803, the land around Port Phillip Bay supported a wide diversity of ecosystems. For millennia the area was the territory of Aboriginal clans belonging to two language groups, Woi wurrung and Boon wurrung. These peoples lived in spiritual union with the land, exploiting its abundant resources, and, through a range of practices, maintaining it in the form in which it had been created. The encroachment of Europeans onto clan estates, beginning in the 1830s, brought dramatic changes to this Aboriginal way of life, and also to the local landscapes themselves. The thesis propounded here is that the natural history of the area was a major influence on the occupation and use of the area by humans, and that to understand the particulars of that natural history is to have an insight into the human history. The bulk of the study is therefore a reconstruction of that natural history, which is offered as the physical context of human action in the area. (For complete abstract open document)

Every single person on earth is a road-user; and, although an integral part of our society, the management of traffic is a low priority for most. Authorities constantly work to lessen the tension between the free-flow of traffic and traffic safety. Consequently, the management of traffic and its subsequent problems has consumed more time, money and resources than any other item on the public agenda. Between 1890 and 1930, urban road-traffic in Melbourne, Victoria, Australia, as in other world cities, underwent a revolution as speeds increased 500%. The motor-vehicle exacerbated existing traffic problems with increased trips and vehicle numbers. Authorities separated the various road users with road demarcations, and placed upon the Victoria Police the responsibility of managing the heterogeneous and complex traffic mix. By the close of the 1920s, all the components—policing, case and statute law, and the physical infrastructure—of the contemporary traffic management system were firmly in place. Introducing motor-transport into a centuries old road network designed for much slower modes of transport, was similar to putting high speed trains, capable of hundreds of kilometres an hour, onto conventional tracks. The marriage of old systems and new technology required a plethora of controls, procedures and safeguards to attain an acceptable level of traffic deaths. Nonetheless, no matter how many modifications, it persisted as a hybrid system. It could not be made to work efficiently.

Thesis (Ph.D.)--University of Melbourne, Office of Research, 1972. / Typescript (photocopy). Includes bibliographical references (leaves 354-359).

Abstract not available

Abstract not available

Thesis (Ph.D.)--University of Melbourne, School of Hisotircal Studies, 2009. / Typescript. Includes bibliographical references (p. 238-252)

Abstract not available

This doctoral dissertation seeks to investigate the reasons that lay behind the rise, success and decline of the Italian-run migrant workers� organisation FILEF during the 1970s in Melbourne by reviewing and discussing some significant historical events. It does so in light of the existing literature, archival data and a string of oral accounts gathered from former and current key FILEF members and collaborators. It is hereby offering a better understanding of an otherwise poorly researched area of the Italian-Australian left-wing grassroots organisations in post-war Australia. The thesis has been divided into two parts, including introduction and conclusion. Part One (Chapters 1-5) reviews the historical and political background (in both Italy and Australia) that favoured the establishment of FILEF in Australia, including Melbourne, in the early 1970s; Part Two (Chapters 6-9) presents an analysis of the historical development and socio-political role of FILEF Melbourne between 1972 and 1980. Chapter One reviews the theoretical context, the representation of the history of FILEF in previous publications, primary and secondary sources, the research strategy and methodology. Chapters Two and Three anchor the history of FILEF Melbourne to their respective background in Italy and Australia. That is, Chapter Two examines the post-war Italian emigration and its politicising by the Italian Left; Chapter Three focuses on the postwar emigration of Italians to Australia and outlines a profile of the Italian-Australian community. Chapter Four maps the route of the Italian-Australian Left in the 1950s and 1960s, that is from Italia Libera to the Lega Italo-Australiana. Chapter Five reviews the circumstances that led the establishment of the PCI in Australia respectively. Chapter Six examines the origins and grassroots activism of FILEF in Melbourne in the 1970s, especially by looking at three areas of activity: migrant press, migrant welfare and migrant politics. Chapter Seven researches the vulnerability of FILEF to the pressures of conservative quarters by recounting the �Italian communist move in� (1975) and the federal funding cut (1976) episodes. Chapter Eight, thoroughly revisits the Salemi case (1977), while Chapter Nine explores the effects of the case and Salemi�s deportation on FILEF towards the end of the 1970s.

The Kew Asylum has been a dominant feature of Melbourne’s built environment for over 100 years. In addition to the visual impact it has made on Melbourne’s skyline it has been very much a part of the psychological landscape of the collective imagination of the city’s inhabitants. Despite this, comparatively little has been written about its impact on society, and almost nothing has been recorded in any comprehensive sense, about its occupants or inmates. This dissertation aims to go some way towards redressing this, not with a broad sweep institutional biography, but with an intimate portrait of the asylum’s earliest days. Covering a time frame of less than 50 years, this thesis adopts a multi-theoretical approach in order to illuminate the different facets of asylum life with the maximum clarity. The thesis contains several themes, some of which overlap and interweave in order to examine the complexity of institutional life.