Towering over all : the Italianate villa in the colonial landscape

The Picturesque aesthetic emerged in the later 18th century, uniting the Sublime and the Beautiful and had its roots in the paintings of Claude Lorrain. In Britain, and in Australia, it came to link art, literature and landscape with architecture. The Picturesque aesthetic informed much of colonial culture which was achieved, in part, through the production and dissemination of architectural pattern books catering for the aspirations of the rising middle classes. This was against a background of political change including democratic reform. The Italianate villa, codified and promoted in such pattern books, was a particularly successful synthesis of style, form and function. The first Italianate villa in England, Cronkhill (1803) by John Nash contains all the ingredients which were essential to the model and had a deeper meaning. Deepdene (from 1807) by Thomas Hope gave the model further impetus. The works of Charles Barry and others in a second generation confirmed the model's acceptability. In Britain, its public status peaked with Osborne House (from 1845), Queen Victoria's Italianate villa on the Isle of Wight, Robert Kerr used a vignette of Osborne House on the title page of his sophisticated and influential pattern book, The Gentleman's House (1864,1871). It was one of many books, including those of J.C, Loudon and AJ. Downing, current in colonial Victoria. The latter authors and horticulturists were themselves villa dwellers with libraries and orchards, two criteria for the true villa lifestyle. Situation and a sense of retreat were the two further criteria for the villa lifestyle. As the new colony of Victoria blossomed between 1851 and 1891, the Italianate villa, its garden setting and its landscape siting captured the tenor of the times. Melbourne, the capital was a rich manufacturing metropolis with a productive hinterland and international markets. The people enjoyed a prosperity and lifestyle which they wished to display. Those who had a position in society were keen to demonstrate and protect it. Those with aspirations attempted to provide the evidence necessary for such acceptance, The model matured and became ubiquitous. Its evolution can be traced through a series of increasingly complicated rural and suburban examples, a process which modernist historians have dismissed as a decadent decline. These villas, in fact, demonstrate an increasingly sophisticated retreat by merchants from ‘the Town’ and by graziers from ‘the Country’. In both town and country, the towers of villas mark territory newly acquired. The same claim was often made in humbler situations. Government House, Melbourne (from 1871), a splendid Italianate villa and arguably finer than Osborne House, was set in a cultivated landscape and towered above all It incorporated the four criteria and, in addition, claimed its domain, focused authority and established the colony's social status. It symbolised ancient notions of democracy and idealism but with a modem appreciation for the informal and domestic. Government House in Melbourne is the epitome of the Italianate villa in the colonial landscape and is the climax of the Picturesque aesthetic in Victoria.

Public libraries in Ballarat : 1851-1900

This thesis analyses the development of the Ballarat East Free Library (1859), the Ballarat Mechanics’ Institute Library (1859) and the City of Ballaarat Free Library (1878) within the broader context of public librarianship in Victoria between 1851-1900. Mechanics’ Institute libraries and free libraries represent the major derivatives of a nineteenth-century library model that emphasised the pursuit of lifelong learning, private reading and the enjoyment of genteel recreational facilities. The circumstances that led to the formation of an Institute and a free library in Ballarat in, 1,859 provide a unique opportunity to analyse the public library model for two reasons. These libraries were established in a remarkable goldfield city that enjoyed a number of economic and cultural advantages and secondly, the Ballarat Mechanics’ Institute Library and the Ballarat East Free Library experienced such spectacular growth that by 1880 they were two of the largest public libraries in Australia. However, it is argued that this growth cycle could not be sustained due to a combination of factors including low membership levels, limited funding for recurrent expenditure purposes, and heightened dissatisfaction with the book collections. Libraries began to stagnate in the late-1880s and the magnitude of this collapse in Ballarat, and throughout the colony, was subsequently confirmed with the publication of a national survey of Australian libraries in 1935. The ‘Munn-Pitt’ report found that public libraries had provided a better service in 1880 than at any other time in the next six decades. Four conclusions are drawn in this comparative analysis of the Ballarat Mechanics’ Institute Library, the Ballarat East Free Library, and to a lesser extent, the City of Ballaarat Free Library, between 1851-1900. Firstly, is it shown that the literature places considerable emphasis on the formation of public libraries but is far less critical of the long-term viability of the public library model as it evolved in Ballarat and throughout the colony in the nineteenth century. Secondly, whilst Ballarat and its library committees benefited from the city's prosperity and the entrepreneurial zeal of its pioneers, these same library committees were unable to overcome the structural flaws in the public library model or to dispel the widespread belief that libraries were elitist organisations. As a consequence, membership of the major libraries in Ballarat never exceeded 4% of the total population. Thirdly, it is acknowledged that an absence of records relating to book borrowing habits by individuals limits is a limiting factor, but this problem has been addressed, in part, by undertaking a comparative analysis of collection development policies, invoices, lists of popular authors and books, public comment and the book borrowing patterns of a number of comparable libraries in central Victoria. These resources provide a number of insights into the reading habits of library patrons in Ballarat in the late-nineteenth century. Finally, this thesis focuses on the management policies and practices of each library committee in Ballarat in order to move beyond the traditional explanation for the demise of nineteenth-century libraries and to propose an alternative explanation for the stagnation of public libraries in Ballarat in the mid-1880s. The traditional explanation for the demise of colonial libraries was the sudden reduction in government funding in the 1890s, whereas this thesis argues that a combination of factors, including the unresolved tensions with regard to libraries collection development policies, committee and municipal rivalry, and increasing conservatism, had already damaged the credibility of Ballarat’s libraries by the mid-1880s. It is argued that the intense rivalry between library committees resulted in an unnecessary duplication of services and an inadequate membership base. It is also argued that the increasingly conservative, un-cooperative and uninviting attitudes of these library committees discouraged patronage and as a direct consequence, membership and daily visitor rates of the free and Institute libraries in Ballarat plummeted by 80% between 1880-1900.

Study of 'post-critical' thought and religious epistemology : with special reference to Michael Polanyi, Paul Tillich and Thomas F. Torrance

Explores the foundational problem in epistemology posed by Immanuel Kant and illustrates, from the 'post-critical' position, with special reference to Michael Polanyi, Paul Tillich and Thomas F. Torrance, how they serve as alternative philosophical and religious responses to the Kantian critical philosophy.

Janet Lady Clarke (1851-1909) 'Leader in the good work'

This thesis is a biographical study which examines the life and career of Janet Lady Clarke. As a leader of women's philanthrophic, health, educational and political organisations in nineteenth-century and early twentieth-century Victoria, she promoted new ideas within a conservative colonial society. Her legacies remain an integral part of Victoria's cultural heritage.