The decline of Australian country life is not new - either as a phenomenon or as a popular fear. Contemporary interest in this area is often highlighted in hopeful policy frameworks for the revitalisation of town and countryside. The continuing interaction between our dreams of the Australian countryside and the reality of its decline is the key focus of Struggle Country: The Rural Ideal in Twentieth Century Australia. Linking present concerns to history, this collection of essays looks at how the dreams of progress that captured the imagination of country towns and regions, city politicians and even historians themselves, led to specific positive and negative outcomes in these areas, which in turn influenced how these regions were treated.

Struggle Country: The Rural Ideal in Twentieth-century Australia

History

Australia & Oceania

Monash Univ Pub

In the late 1990s, Carolyn Landon collaborated with Daryl Tonkin to write his memoir of life at Jackson's Track. It was the story of a White man and his Aboriginal family, of family ties, hard work, happiness, betrayal, racial prejudice and ultimately, from Daryl's point of view, tragic dispossession. Since being published in 2000, Jackson's Track has sold more than 60,000 copies. Now, Carolyn Landon has come back to the events of the story to examine them anew.In Jackson's Track Revisited, the voices of Aboriginal people who lived at the Track mingle with those of the White Australians who tried to 'improve' their lives in the 1950s, the era of assimilation. An exploration of the historical factors surrounding Tonkin's story leads to discussion of the Victorian Aborigines Welfare Board, the Victorian Aborigines Advancement League and the policy of assimilation that was so prevalent in mid-twentieth century Australia.This concise book contains many surprises. The new stories take complex twists and turns as Landon explores the motives of all the players - and this involves revisiting Tonkin's own memories. As Landon seeks others' interpretations of events, she also analyses her own changing understandings, uncovering the prejudices she, as interviewer, researcher and historian, has brought to the project. The testimony of one Aboriginal participant is particularly unforeseen and forthright. It shows that the way the Kurnai people see themselves has escaped the constructions White Australians have placed upon them ever since invasion.Finally, Jackson's Track Revisited focuses on the friendship between Landon and Pauline Mullett, daughter of Daryl Tonkin. Mullett leads Landon into her existing culture - a culture which many White people believed no longer existed - helping Landon to find meaning in all the stories.

Jackson's Track Revisited: History, Remembrance and Reconciliation

Landon, Carolyn

This book arises from the author's half a century and more of political and public policy involvement. It's a response to evidence of a precipitous decline in active citizenship, resulting from a loss of confidence in politics, politicians, parties and parliamentary democracy; the rise of 'lying for hire' lobbyism; increasing concentration of capital in the hands of a wealthy few; and corporate wrong-doing and criminality. It questions whether political democracy can survive indefinitely in the absence of economic democracy - of labour hiring capital rather than capital labour. It highlights the potential of the social teachings of the Catholic Church and the now largely forgotten Distributist political philosophy and program that originated from them as a means of bringing about a more equal, just and genuinely democratic social order. It describes and evaluates Australian attempts to give effect to Distributism, with special reference to Victoria. It documents as grounds for hope the support and advocacy of Pope Francis, and ownership by some 83,000 workers of the Mondragon co-operatives in Spain. Race Mathews is a former Chief of Staff to Gough Whitlam, Federal MP, Victorian MP and Minister, Local Government Councillor, academic, speech therapist and primary teacher. He has held numerous positions in the Australian Labor Party and the co-operative and credit union movements and has written and spoken widely about their history, attributes, and activities. A major focus of his research has been the great complex of worker-owned co-operatives at Mondragon in the Basque region of Spain and its origins in the social teachings of the Catholic Church. He is married to writer Iola Mathews, and lives in Melbourne.

Of Labour and Liberty: Distributism in Victoria 1891-1966 (Politics)

Business & Money

Mathews, Race

Economics

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