This thesis is an investigation into the use of defensive architectural techniques by
civilian settlers in frontier South Australia and the Northern Territory between 1847 and
1885. By focussing specifically on the civilian use of defensive architecture, this study
opens a new approach to the archaeological investigation and interpretation of Australian
rural buildings, an approach that identifies defensive strategies as a feature of Australian
frontier architecture.
Four sites are analysed in this study area, three of which are located in South Australia
and one in the Northern Territory. When first built, the structures investigated were not
intended, or expected, to become what they did - their construction was simply the
physical expression of the fear felt by some of the colonial settlers of Australia. Over
time, however, the stories attached to these structures have come to play a significant part
in Australias frontier mythology.
These structures represent physical manifestations of settler fear and Aboriginal
resistance. Essentially fortified homesteads, they comprise a body of material evidence
previously overlooked and unacknowledged in Australian archaeology, yet they are
highly significant in terms of what they can tell us about frontier conflict, in relation to
the mindsets and experiences of the settlers who built them. This architecture also
constitutes material evidence of a vanguard of Australian colonisation (or invasion) being
carried out, not by the military or police, but by civilian settlers.
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Apart from this, these structures play a part in the popular mythology of Australias
colonial past. All of these structures have a myth associated with them, describing them
as having been built for defence against Aboriginal attack. These myths are analysed in
terms of why they came into existence, why they have survived, and what role they play
in the construction of Australias national identity. Drawn from, and substantiated
through, the material evidence of the homesteads, these myths are one component of a
wider body of myths which serve the ideological needs of the settler society through
justifying its presence by portraying the settlers as victims of Aboriginal aggression.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:ADTP/216457 |
| Date | January 2007 |
| Creators | Grguric, Nicolas Grguric, eqeta@yahoo.com.au |
| Publisher | Flinders University. Humanities |
| Source Sets | Australiasian Digital Theses Program |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Rights | http://www.flinders.edu.au/disclaimer/), Copyright Nicolas Grguric Grguric |
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