'The remarkable disappearance of messrs Gellibrand and Hesse'. What really happened in 1837?: A Re-examination of the historical evidence
- Authors: Donovan, Paul Michael , Clark, Ian , Cahir, David (Fred)
- Date: 2016
- Type: Text , Journal article
- Relation: Victorian historical journal (Melbourne, Vic. : 1987) Vol. 87, no. 2 (2016), p. 278-297
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- Description: In 1837, Joseph Tice Gellibrand and George Brooks Legrew Hesse disappeared near Birregurra. Popular history says that their bodies were never found and their deaths are a mystery. However, letters, records, contemporary newspaper articles and early histories outline the disappearance and discovery of the bodies. Isaac Hebb's history in the 1880s refuted primary sources, claiming that the whereabouts of the bodies were never found. This article re-examines early historical documents, many of which Hebb may not have had access to or opted not to include in his work. We critique Hebb's analysis and reinvestigate the story.
'We are all of one blood' - A history of the Djabwurrung Aboriginal people of Western Victoria, 1836-1901, Volume One : A history of the Djabwurrung, 1936-1901
- Authors: Clark, Ian
- Date: 2016
- Type: Text , Book
- Relation: Vol. One
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- Description: This is the first volume in the three-volume history of the Djabwurrung Aboriginal people of Western Victoria, 1836-1901.
'We are all of one blood' - A history of the Djabwurrung Aboriginal people of western Victoria, 1836-1901, Volume Three : Anthology of Sources
- Authors: Clark, Ian
- Date: 2016
- Type: Text , Book
- Full Text: false
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- Description: This is volume three of the History of the Djabwurrung Aboriginal people of Western Victoria, 1836-1901. It publishes the primary sources used in preparing this history. These include extracts from unpublished and published reminiscences; and diaries; and newspaper articles. It is hoped that this collation will serve as a primary source for the Djabwurrung community and other people interested in their history.
'We are all of one blood' - A history of the Djabwurrung Aboriginal people of Western Victoria, 1836-1901, Volume Two : Biographies, Genealogies, Pastoral station profiles, Collectors of Djabwurrung heritage, and Place names
- Authors: Clark, Ian
- Date: 2016
- Type: Text , Book
- Relation: Vol. Two
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- Description: This is the second volume in the three-volume history of the Djabwurrung Aboriginal people of Western Victoria, 1836-1901. It presents profiles of select Djabwurrung Aboriginal people; biographies of the Sievwrights and the Wattons, who were associated with the Western District of the Port Phillip Aboriginal Protectoriate; profiles of pastoral stations, licenses and superintendents; biographies of nineteenth century collectors of Djabwurrung cultural heritage; and concludes with a selection of Djabwurrung Place names.
Indigenous folklore of the northern Wathawurrung peoples
- Authors: Clark, Ian
- Date: 2016
- Type: Text , Book chapter
- Relation: Goldfields and the gothic : A hidden heritage & folklore p. 151-164
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- Description: This paper examines four northern Wathawurrung legends and beliefs that were associated with five landmarks within their country - Lal Lal Falls, Black Hill (Kirrit Barreet, near Gordon), Lake Burrumbeet, and Mt Buninyong and Mt Elephant (Derrinallum). The first two sites are associated with Bundjil, the creator spirit. Lake Burrumbeet concerns a 'witch-like' creature, and the final two sites were involved in major conflict that explaines their unique topographical characteristics. The northern Wathawurrung country is bounded by the Werribee River in the east; the Fiery Creek in the west; and the Great Dividing Range in the north.
James Dawson’s intervention in the naming of the Maroondah Aqueduct in 1881-83
- Authors: Clark, Ian
- Date: 2016
- Type: Text , Journal article
- Relation: La Trobe Journal Vol. 97, no. March (2016), p. 91-104
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- Description: This paper is concerned with the renaming of the Watts River Scheme at its official opening in 1891 to Maroondah. It reveals that the driving force behind the name change was, in all likelihood, James Dawson, whose interest in Aboriginal place names and his association with the Upper Yarra since 1840 saw him undertake a field visit to the Coranderrk Aboriginal settlement to meet with Aboriginal elders and learn their traditional names for the locality. Before venturing in to the field, however, he discussed his plans with the relevant official in charge in the Water Department and received a promise from the official that he would do all he could to meet Dawson’s views on the desirability for a name change. Dawson’s wishes were realised at the official opening, however the assigned convict George Watts’s name still remains associated with the stream in which he drowned.
The children of the Port Phillip Aboriginal Protectorate : An anthology of their reminiscences
- Authors: Clark, Ian , Cahir, David (Fred)
- Date: 2016
- Type: Text , Book
- Full Text: false
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- Description: During the life of the Port Phillip Aboriginal Protectorate from 1839 until late 1849 some 35 children of the Protectors were associated with the Protectorate. These children have been largely neglected by scholars and rendered historically invisible. Six of them have however left 28 distinct records of their experiences. In this work we hear the voice of Protectorate children - the authors bring them out of the shadows of their fathers and allow them to appear as influential actors in their own right, with their own motivations, goals, ideas, and relationships with Aboriginal people. Detailed biographical entries, where possible, are included on every protectorate child and on their spouses. For the first time, the reminiscences of William Jackson Thomas and Albert Le Souef are published in their entirety, and all of the writings of the Protectorate's children are brought together so that their contribution to our understanding of the Protectorate may be acknowledged and interpreted.
Visitor experiences of aboriginal place names in colonial Victoria, Australia, 1834-1900
- Authors: Clark, Ian
- Date: 2016
- Type: Text , Book chapter
- Relation: Names and Naming : People, Places, Perceptions and Power (Multilingual Matters series) Chapter 2 p. 18-31
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- Description: In a preliminary assessment of a literary triptych of travel through colonial Victoria, Australia, in the nineteenth century, each representing different time periods, a common thread was found in that all three shared an interest in Aboriginal place names. One traveler in particular, Isabella Bird, was affronted by her encounters with transplanted British place names that for her seemed semiotically incongruous. The purpose of this study is to determine the extent to which these women's interest in place names in general and Kirkland's and Bird's preference for Indigenous toponymy was shared by other colonial travellers to Victoria.
Winda lingo parugoneit or Why set the bush on fire? Fire and Victorian Aboriginal people on the colonial frontier
- Authors: Cahir, David (Fred) , McMaster, Sarah , Clark, Ian , Kerin, Rani , Wright, Wendy
- Date: 2016
- Type: Text , Journal article
- Relation: Australian Historical Studies Vol. 47, no. 2 (2016), p. 225-240
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- Description: There is an ethnographic and historical record that, despite its paucity, can offer specific insight into various contextual matters (purpose, motivations, acknowledgement) relating to how and why fire was being used by Victorian Aboriginal people in the nineteenth century. This insight is essential to developing cross-culturally appropriate land and fire management strategies in the present and into the future. This article demonstrates the need for further research into historical accounts of Aboriginal burning in Victoria.
'John and Jackey': An exploration of Aboriginal and Chinese people's associations on the Victorian goldfields
- Authors: Cahir, David (Fred) , Clark, Ian
- Date: 2015
- Type: Text , Journal article
- Relation: Journal of Australasian Mining History Vol. 13, no. No. (2015), p. 23-41
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- Description: While much has been written about Chinese miners, much less has been said about Aboriginal miners and even less about Aboriginal-Chinese relations on the gold fields and elsewhere. Historians and other writers, such as Stephenson, Dunstan, Gittins, Cronin, Ramsay and Edwards and Shen, have largely ignored Aboriginal associations with Chinese people in colonial Victoria. Eric Rolls's study is representative of this absence - when discussing Australia's colonial racial policies towards the Chinese on the Victorian gold fields, Rolls is reluctant to draw many parallels between the Chinese, one group of people largely hidden from the historical gaze, and Aborigines, another group almost expunged from memory. A similar pattern can be seen in the historiography of encounters in other nations between Indigenous and Chinese people, such as in New Zealand and British Columbia where the paucity of the records initially led Yu to note: 'Here was a world only glimpsed'.
A letter home to Scotland from Warrenheip in April 1857 : Insights into life in a railway survey camp
- Authors: Clark, Ian , Kicinski, Beth
- Date: 2015
- Type: Text , Journal article
- Relation: Victorian Historical Journal Vol. 86, no. 2 (2015), p. 363-380
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- Description: This paper is concerned to publish a letter sent from a railway survey camp at Warrenheip in April 1857 by an assistant surveyor named John C Macdonald to his sister in Scotland. The letter was sent on an issue of the News Letter of Australasia. The letter provides insights into the living conditions of survey camps; the perils of travelling in the bush; nascent goldfields tourism, with its practice of taking visitors down into mines to see how they operated; and the difficulty of maintaining communication between families at home and their kin who had migrated to Australia. The letter was found in a suitcase of miscellaneous papers in an auction in Scotland in October 2012 and is published here for the first time.
A tour of the mines - An anthology of travel accounts and reminiscences of Ballarat, 1851-1901
- Authors: Clark, Ian
- Date: 2014
- Type: Text , Book
- Relation: Vol. Volume One : 1851-1861
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- Description: This anthology is a trove of impressions of Ballarat and its environs. The visitors come from all walks of life - journalists, politicians, royalty, actors, artists, and clergy including an Aboriginal evangelist. Many perspectives are represented including Indian, Canadian, American, Swiss, Hungarian, French, English, Welsh, Irish, Scottish, German, and Viennese. This is Volume One covering the decade from 1851 to 1861. Ballarat in its first decade as a centre of gold mining is very much the story of the invasion of the gold diggers, and the conflict at the Eureka Stockade in 1854. Aboriginal people are present in this anthology as the Wathawurrung Aboriginal people of the Ballarat district and the policing by the Native Police Corps are discussed by numerous writers.
A tour of the mines- an anthology of travel accounts and reminiscences of Ballarat, 1851-1901. Vol Two: 1861-1901
- Authors: Clark, Ian
- Date: 2014
- Type: Text , Book
- Full Text: false
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- Description: Since the discovery of gold in 1851 many people visited Ballarat to see the Golden City. Fortunately, many published observations of what they saw and experienced. Over 120 accounts from visitors to Ballarat from 1851 until 1901, are presented in this anthology. This anthology is a trove of material that is rich and rewarding for many uses and users - for those looking to undersatnding the evolution of a city from an Indigenous landscape and the contribution of gold mining to this development, he resource is indeed a rich quarry. "From cover".
An historical geography of tourism in Victoria, Australia: case studies
- Authors: Clark, Ian , Dolce, Ever , Justin, Lisa , Sergi, Sharnee , Skidmore, Stephanie , Watson, Jaimee
- Date: 2014
- Type: Text , Book
- Full Text: false
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Bunjils Shelter, Black Range Scenic Reserve
- Authors: Clark, Ian
- Date: 2014
- Type: Text , Book chapter
- Relation: An Historical Geography of Tourism in Victoria, Australia Chapter 4 p. 64-86
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- Description: This chapter presents a detailed history of the Aboriginal art site known as Bunjils Shelter situated in the Black Range Scenic Reserve, near Stawell (see Fig.4.1). It is the only known site in Victoria to contain bichrome figures and an anthropomorphic figure whose identity is known. The existence of the art site had been rumoured among the European population since the 1850s, however its existence was first confirmed when Alfred William Howitt (1904) revealed its general location, from information he gained in the summer of 1883/84 from John Connolly, a Jardwadjali speaker he interviewed at Ramahyuck Aboriginal station. Although the location of the site did not become public knowledge until 1957, its location was known to a select group of local European people from at least 1911. The incidence of graffiti also dates from this time. The site is generally regarded to be one of the most significant of the 150 or so Aboriginal art sites in Victoria, and yet its management has been characterized by nagging doubts about its authenticity (see Clark, 2005).
Colin and Frances Campbell and their relationships with the Djabwurrung Aboriginal people of the Buangor district, 1840-1903
- Authors: Clark, Ian
- Date: 2014
- Type: Text , Book chapter
- Relation: Scots under the Southern Cross p. 23-32
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- Description: This paper is concerned with the Djabwurrung Aboriginal people of the Buangor district and their relationships with Colin and Frances Campbell. Colin Campbell squatted on Djabwurrung land near Mt Cole in late February 1840. Two 'big' questions lie behind this study - to what extent, if any, did the condition of being Scottish affect their attitudes to Indigenous peoples?, and did Scottish highlanders, whose own culture and language were coming under threat, perceive any parallels between their experiences and those of Indigenous peoples?
Den of Nargun, Mitchell River National Park
- Authors: Clark, Ian
- Date: 2014
- Type: Text , Book chapter
- Relation: An Historical Geography of Tourism in Victoria, Australia Chapter 5 p. 87-110
- Full Text: false
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- Description: This chapter is concerned to document the history of the development of the Den of Nargun as a tourism site utilising the theoretical constructs developed by MacCannell (1976), Butler (1980) and Gunn (1994). These perspectives provide insights into the historical maturation of a cultural or natural site into a tourism attraction. MacCannell’s (1976) perspective reflects progressive development of attractions over five phases – naming, framing and elevation, enshrinement and duplication, and social reproduction. For the purpose of this study, Butler’s (1980) ‘tourism area life cycle model’ will be correlated with MacCannell’s model of the evolution of attractions in order to navigate the development and tourism history of the Den of Nargun. Furthermore, utilisation of Gunn’s (1994) spatial model helps to provide an understanding of the contextual and environmental development and character of the site.
Dissonance surrounding the Aboriginal origin of a selection of placenames in Victoria, Australia : Lessons in lexical ambiguity
- Authors: Clark, Ian
- Date: 2014
- Type: Text , Book chapter
- Relation: Indigenous and minority placenames : Australian and international perspectives (Aboriginal history series) Chapter 14 p. 251-272
- Full Text: false
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- Description: When studying the history of some 3,400 Aboriginal toponyms in Victoria, Australia, the majority of placenames were found to have no equivocalness or ambiguity about them (Clark and Heydon 2002). Although it was not possible to find meanings fro every one of these Aboriginal placenames, in terms of historical accounts and folk etymology there was no ambiguity - the vast majority of the placenames are accepted in the source material as being of Aboriginal origin. This paper concerns some 26 placenames for which there is dissonance or a lack of agreement about whether or not they are Aboriginal in origin. These names are considered in some detail in an effort to resolve their lexical ambiguity and an attempt is made to explain the reasons for the ambiguity and to find any patterns and causal factors. The merits of the claims and counter claims in each case will be examined and an attempt made to categorise the assertion of Aboriginal etymology as either grounded in the historical evidence, or likely to be explained by folk etymology - that is, a false meaning based on its structure or sound that may lack historical basis but has been accepted through common practice, or explained as a false etymology that neither accords with historical evidence nor equates with folk etymologies.
Ella Fitzgerald in Australia - a history
- Authors: Clark, Ian
- Date: 2014
- Type: Text , Book
- Full Text: false
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- Description: Ella Fitzgerald visited Australia four times (1954, 1960, 1970, 1978) in her long career that spanned six decades. This work presents a detailed history of Ella's tours of Australia using primary sources such as newspaper articles, photographs, and concert memorabilia that are assembled here for the first time. Other than some consideration of a racist event that occured en route to Australia in 1954, and the mistaken belief that Ella interrupted her 1960 tour to return to America to participate in J.F. Kennedy's pre-election inaugural gala, Ella Fitzgerald's tours of Australia have received very scant attention in her biographies and in studies of Australia's musical history.
Hanging Rock Recreation Reserve
- Authors: Skidmore, Stephanie , Clark, Ian
- Date: 2014
- Type: Text , Book chapter
- Relation: An historical geography of tourism in Victoria, Australia Case studies Chapter 6 p. 111-134
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- Description: This chapter presents an historical analysis of the evolution of tourism at Hanging Rock Recreation Reserve. It shows how Hanging Rock evolved from being a ‘special’ place of local Aboriginal clans at the time of European settlement into a significant natural/cultural tourism attraction. Hanging Rock Recreation Reserve is some 80 kilometres N.N.W. of Melbourne and lies immediately north of Mount Macedon. It is managed by the Macedon Ranges Shire Council. In terms of its physical extent, the acquisition of 22 hectares in 1993 increased the size of the reserve to 88 hectares, although the rock itself only covers approximately 9 hectares, the remaining area is comprised of the racecourse, picnic areas, and car park. Five Mile Creek, a tributary of the Campaspe River, flows through the southern portion of the reserve. With its distinctive geological formation the rock rises some 100 metres above the surrounding plain.