S Petrow

Sanatorium of the south? : public health and politics in Hobart and Launceston, 1875-1914

In the nineteenth century boosters claimed that Tasmania was the Sanatorium of the Australian colonies, an island where the sick could gain new vitality and where a long and healthy life was assured. This image was projected in order to attract tourists and immigrants. However the insanitary conditions of the two major cities, Hobart and Launceston, resulted in a series of epidemics of infectious diseases in the 1880s and cast doubt upon the salubrity of the island. This thesis examines the cause of these epidemics and other public health problems faced by the two cities and assesses the way in which public health responsibilities were discharged by the City Councils of Hobart and Launceston, concentrating on the period 1885 to 1914. Detailed study begins in 1885 when the Public Health Act, the most important Tasmanian statute on health in the nineteenth century, was passed. Part One surveys sanitary conditions in the two cities before 1885, focusing on the decade from 1875 when, after years of insouciance, epidemics forced the two Councils to give some attention to sanitary problems. Part Two on Launceston and Part Three on Hobart each includes chapters on the political context in which public health problems were considered, looking particularly at the direction municipal reform took and explaining the enlargement of municipal powers; on the indispensable role of Health Officers, who were usually the only members of municipal councils with training in preventive medicine; on how Councils cleared the environment of accumulations of filth and sewage, those-fertile sources of infectious disease; and on how vested interests impeded municipal regulation of insanitary housing, noxious trades, cemeteries and factories. A central theme is that political and economic considerations were frequently more important than the imperatives of preventive medicine in determining whether sanitary reforms would be implemented. Property owners were the most influential pressure group in municipal politics and were often successful in opposing sanitary reform when it seemed to threaten their interests. However, assisted by the shock impact of epidemics, especially of typhoid, and the growth of civic consciousness, sanitary reformers were able to persuade the City Councils to clean up the urban environment. Consequently, although failing badly in crucial areas, particularly housing, the evidence suggests that the sanitary improvements implemented by the Hobart and Launceston Corporations contributed to a steady decline in the general death rate and a reduction in the incidence of infectious diseases.

Policing in a Penal Colony: Governor Arthur's Police System in Van Diemen's Land, 1826–1836

In eighteenth-century England the rule of law was “the central legitimizing ideology, displacing the religious authority and sanctions of previous centuries.” Arising out of struggles between the monarchy, Parliament, and the courts, the rule of law sought to protect individual liberty and private property by placing constraints on arbitrary authority. The ruling class used the rule of law ideology to enhance their power, but it also acted as a check on that power. All citizens from the monarch to the poorest citizen became bound by the rule of law and could settle their disputes in the courts presided over by judges, who were independent of manipulation.

Creating an Orderly Society: The Hobart Municipal Police 1880-1898

The late 19th century witnessed a remarkable decline in urban crime and disorder in Australia, England, and America. Historians have suggested various reasons for this decline including the spread of education, the introduction of social reforms, and greater economic prosperity. Another key factor was the development of more numerous and efficient police forces. As the importance of these factors differed from city to city, local studies of particular cities are needed to help understanding of the wider processes at work. This article examines the role of the Hobart municipal police in helping to make Hobart an orderly city. It considers the reform of the police after the Chiniquy riots of 1879, the role of Superintendent Frederick Pedder in enforcing a new code of conduct on the police and the improved working conditions enjoyed by the police. The article considers how successfully the municipal police dealt with disorder created by the Salvation Army, prostitutes, and pubs. The conclusion examines why centralisation of the police was introduced in 1898.

Economy, Efficiency and Impartiality: Police Centralisation in Nineteenth Century Tasmania

In late nineteenth century Australia, Tasmania was the only colony with a decentralised policing system. Despite its uniqueness, few Australian scholars have analysed how this policing system operated in practice or fully explained why centralisation was introduced in 1899. After briefly examining the reasons why decentralisation was introduced in 1858, this paper considers the numerous criticisms of the system. These included the failure of municipal police forces to impartially and uniformly enforce the laws passed by parliament, the lack of co-operation between forces, and, with each of the 21 forces being headed by a superintendent, the excessive cost of separate forces: A select committee of 1886 confirmed weaknesses in the system and thereafter successive ministries, seeking more efficient and rational government, campaigned for police centralisation. Municipal opposition was only overcome when the Braddon government bribed the municipalities with substantial financial relief and persuaded them that municipal government would be strengthened by relinquishing the burden of controlling the police.

Lay Defender of Catholicism: Dr. Edward Swarbreck Hall in Tasmania 1833–1881

Tensions between Protestants and Catholics persisted throughout nineteenth-century Australia. Historians have tended to examine the part played by the clergy, pressure groups or newspapers in sectarian disputes in the main colonies of New South Wales and Victoria. This article contributes to an understanding of anti-Catholicism in the Australian colonies by focusing on the actions and writings of one Catholic layman, Dr Edward Swarbreck Hall, in mid nineteenth-century Tasmania. To minimise religious hostility, Hall was tolerant towards Protestants, loyal to the British Crown, and worked co-operatively with other creeds in helping the poor. This approach made Catholicism more acceptable to Protestant society until the late 1860s. Thereafter religious divisions became more pronounced with the appointment of Irish Bishop Daniel Murphy, who adopted the authoritarian policies of the papacy and asserted the rights of Catholics. Feeling threatened by Catholic assertion and antagonised by Catholic doctrinal beliefs, Evangelical Protestants expressed anti-Catholic sentiments at public meetings and in newspapers. In showing how Hall defended Catholics when aspersions were cast on their clergymen, their character, or their religious practices, this article concludes that Catholics were not passive victims, but Halls fierce polemical style worked against his desire for religious peace

'Developing the highest moral instincts' : protecting animals in Launceston 1879-1906

Settled as Australia’s second colony in 1803, Tasmania began life as the island penal colony of Van Diemen’s Land and gained a reputation for brutality in the treatment of convicts and the Indigenous population. But brutality did not stop with humans. Settlers to the island had been accustomed to be cruel to animals in Britain and this practice continued in Tasmania. Decisive steps to stop this cruelty only emerged in the 1870s when branches of the Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals were formed in Hobart in 1878 and in Launceston in 1879. This article examines the aims and methods of the Launceston branch of the SPCA and assesses its success in changing attitudes to animal cruelty. This article has been peer reviewed.

Godfather of Tasmania: commemorating Abel Tasman 1838 to 2012

In 1642, the Dutch explorer Abel Tasman became the first European to sight Van Diemens Land. His name has become embedded in Tasmanian history and, with very little opposition, has been widely commemorated with anniversary celebrations, monuments, and, above all, the naming of Tasmania. Although some historians have suggested that Tasmans exploits were modest, before 1945 he received more attention than other Australian explorers because he was free of any connections with convicts or Aborigines, because of the Tasmanian love of the sea, and because of the dearth of heroes in Tasmanian history. After 1945 Tasmania received a number of Dutch migrants who used Tasmans name to maintain links with their homeland and develop a Dutch-Australian identity. The presence of Dutch migrants renewed Tasmanian enthusiasm for commemorating Tasman and exploiting trade, tourism, and cultural connections with the Netherlands. This article examines the form, function, and actors attached to Tasmans commemoration from the early nineteenth century to the present day.

Civilizing Mission: Animal Protection in Hobart 1878–1914

The Royal Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals was one of the most prominent pressure groups in nineteenth-century England. This middle-class reform group, inspired by the Christian faith, led the movement to defend animals from mistreatment. It enforced the law using its army of Inspectors and used education to engender kindness towards animals. While historians have debated the work of the RSPCA at length, they have paid less attention to the work of branches of the SPCA established in the British colonies. This article focuses on the activities of the Tasmanian SPCA from its formation in 1878 to the suspension of its activities in 1914. The Tasmanian society was inspired by the philosophy and methods of the parent society and initiated a ‘civilizing mission’ to deal with the widespread cruelty to animals in the capital Hobart. This article assesses the work of the society in protecting domestic animals, especially horses, which were widely used for work, transport and recreation. Although d...

Dancing with Strangers: Europeans and Australians at First Contact

which drew on and fed back into the process of urbanization, development and renewal. Tristram Hunt, the Cambridge-educated historian, television personality and “prot6g6 of Peter Mandelson who at one stage worked as a neophyte inside New Labour’s Millbank machine” (The Spectator; 30 April 2005, p. 31), has written a vivid and sympathetic account of the rise and fall of the Victorian city, one which at times he wistfully pines after, or at least recognizes the merits of. While being critical of today’s politicians and civic planners who seem intent on repeating the bad urban mistakes of the twentieth century, Hunt inverts New Labour’s recent election manifesto, “forwards, not backwards,” to suggest that the future for the city lies in looking back to Victorian times to remember what we and it had, and what, thanks to centralization and the dominance of Westminster, we, and more specifically the city, have lost. Hunt is a firm believer in decentralization as the urban way forward, and he encourages government to recognize diversity, “think more imaginatively” (36 l), “and allow local people armed with the vote the maturity of self-government” (362). Such exhortations are one reason, perhaps, why this book, which draws on the strong body of extant scholarship for its themes, can be read in two ways: as a history of the city, and as a guide for politicians as to what to do and what not to do in and to the urban environment. Hunt’s previous form as government advisor manifests itself comfortably alongside the historian. He teaches us, in an accessible and highly readable way, the lessons of the past, while encouraging us to look to the future. He recognizes that the vibrancy of cities depends upon the people who live in them, and he recognises too the importance of civic identity in an almost Victorian way: “The next generation of iconic civic architecture should not be a Selfridges or Harvey Nichols, but libraries, town halls and municipal gardens. And they in turn should be adorned with civic monuments . . . which all serve to generate at however residual a level, some form of civic identity” (363). Civic identity and pride were two things that the Victorians celebrated with gusto; Building Jerusalem gently suggests that a return to some Victorian values, which paradoxically were derided by Labour when espoused by the Conservative Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher, might not be such a bad idea after all.

The Once and Future Army: A History of the Citizen Military Forces, 1947–1974: McCarthy, Dayton: Melbourne: Oxford University Press 303 pp., Publication Date: June 2003

current Sino-Vietnamese relations. He does a nice job of explaining and analyzing the various outstanding border and maritime tenitorial disputes between the two countries from the Gulf of Tonkin to the Con Son Basin. He concludes that the disputes in the South China Sea are the most potentially troublesome for the relationship and for stability in the region. In his analysis of Sino-Vietnamese economic relations, Kenny makes the case that the relationship has not been very beneficial to Vietnam, and he argues that Vietnam would be much better off focusing on developing better economic ties with other regional states and with Western countries. He expresses concern that Vietnam seems willing to follow the Chinese model of economic liberalization combined with continued party control of policy. He suggests that Vietnam should instead model itself on the United States or other inore liberal states in the region. He concludes that the U.S. interests in the region would be best served by a Sino-Vietnamese relationship in which Vietnam finds a middle ground between full tributary accommodation and open hostility. The biggest weakness of this book stems from Kenny’s unwillingness to examine critically how the past fifty years of US.-Vietnamese relations might have adversely affected Vietnamese attitudes toward the United States as a diplomatic partner and as a developmental model. Nonetheless, Shadow qf the Dragon would be useful to all students of Southeast Asian history or international relations from undergraduates to professional scholars.