- Title
- First World War Avenues of Honour : Social history through the landscape
- Creator
- Taffe, Michael
- Date
- 2018
- Type
- Text; Thesis; PhD
- Identifier
- http://researchonline.federation.edu.au/vital/access/HandleResolver/1959.17/166426
- Identifier
- vital:13457
- Identifier
- https://library.federation.edu.au/record=b2758733
- Abstract
- This thesis argues that avenues of honour were the first choice of memorial to the Great War created by Australians. Despite not being the first such avenue, the thesis argues that, by virtue of the massive amount of publicity it brought to focus on this form of memorial, the Ballarat Avenue of Honour was a significant cultural statement by Australians during the Great War. The Ballarat Avenue of Honour was inspirational and pivotal to the establishment of a movement that saw similar memorial avenues planted throughout Australia and also in the U.S.A., U.K., Canada and New Zealand. Using examples from municipal council minutes, correspondence and newspaper reports the spread of this form of memorial is followed from its infancy in South Australia through the Ballarat experience to Britain, North America and New Zealand. Following Australia‘s first plantings in 1915, there was a groundswell from many communities throughout Australia who adopted this form of memorialisation. Australian communities took control of their own need to honour their heroes, their local volunteers, in avenue of honour plantings. Following the example of Ballarat after 1917, this desire to plant memorial avenues became a movement. Examples of the growth of this memorial movement, while government aimed to control spending by curtailing ‗waste‘ on memorials, are outlined and analysed. The thesis also examines the symbolism of avenues against the perceived superior ‗worthiness‘ of later built memorials. By the time the movement declined in Australia, other countries were continued to plant avenues. The diminution, and eventual fall, from memory of many of these heritage landscapes is explored as a part of the politics of identity. In examining the arguments, the links between Ballarat‘s avenue and others throughout Australia, the respective Commonwealth countries as well as the U.S.A. are developed.; Doctor of Philosophy
- Publisher
- Federation University Australia
- Rights
- Copyright Michael Taffe
- Rights
- Open Access
- Rights
- This metadata is freely available under a CCO license
- Subject
- First World War; Avenues of Honour; Social History
- Full Text
- Thesis Supervisor
- Reeves, Keir
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