- Title
- Adapting port cluster theory to contextualise the remarkable rise of the gold rushes port of Melbourne: 1851–1861
- Creator
- Taylor, Peter
- Date
- 2022
- Type
- Text; Thesis; PhD
- Identifier
- http://researchonline.federation.edu.au/vital/access/HandleResolver/1959.17/192244
- Identifier
- vital:17976
- Abstract
- The research question that forms the basis of this thesis asks how and what drove the port of Melbourne to advance 30–50 years growth in less than ten during the 1850s gold era. To answer this question this thesis modifies and tests a new methodological approach to read the port’s growth driven by a close reading and evaluation of port cluster theory. Developed in the early 2000s the theory synthesises elements that constitute a port and operations through a wide range of components and activities. Recognising that a twenty-first-century port is not the same as a mid-nineteenth-century port, through advances brought on by a wide range of modern technologies, the theory has been historicised to dismantle the 1851–1861 gold era port of Melbourne to recognise its parts and how it was built. One of the tools to be enhanced and expanded for this is the cluster table of components and activities, providing specifics for activities undertaken at a mid-nineteenth-century port. A key constituent this propels the research forward when applied at Melbourne’s four ports of central Melbourne, Sandridge (Port Melbourne), Williamstown, Footscray and the Saltwater (Maribyrnong) River (combined). The argument is made that the ports evolved to be a port cluster reinforced by the exploration of specific themes of defence, security, river punts, entrepreneurs, ballast trade, quarrying, railways, noxious industries, shipwreck salvage, shipbuilding, ship repairs, tourism and wharf construction as topics. This thesis then uses the evidence gained to claim that the port did indeed evolve into a cluster port by 1861. The wider implication of this research is that a new framework exists for understanding the complexities of a mid-nineteenth-century port and how this can be done in a systematic way. For this methodology to demonstrate utility outside the port of Melbourne, requires further testing at sites within Australia, and worldwide, for confirmation of universality.; Doctor of Philosophy
- Publisher
- Federation University Australia
- Rights
- All metadata describing materials held in, or linked to, the repository is freely available under a CC0 licence
- Rights
- Copyright @ Peter Taylor
- Rights
- Open Access
- Subject
- Gold rushes; Port cluster theory; Port of Melbourne; Hobsons Bay; Saltwater River; Sandridge; Williamstown; Melbourne; Footscray
- Full Text
- Thesis Supervisor
- Reeves, Keir
- Hits: 1820
- Visitors: 1244
- Downloads: 29
| Thumbnail | File | Description | Size | Format | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| View Details Download | SOURCE2 | Australian Digital Thesis | 18 MB | Adobe Acrobat PDF | View Details Download |