Two Different Histories: Same Place? Manilla, NSW

Authors

  • Anna M. Blanch University of St Andrews

Keywords:

Folkloristics,

Abstract

A close study of a particular place’s several histories—spaced out over the twentieth century—may well offer a sort of paradigm for the ‘revisionist’ interpretation of regional history writing. Regional history mediates between the public and the private, and it probably needs to be written with imagination, rather than bias, to achieve wider sympathy.

Slewings must come from rank-class, local politics, styles of business featured, the absence/presence of an historical perspective, an awareness of/tolerance for ethnic presences and differences. Later histories have more news/perspectives from the outside world, yet, and paradoxically, more local identity rather than national/ international materials. Later histories have more references to women and aborigines, but then a moving away of the younger members, and so that group not being ‘news’. While all forms of local history are valid, they must correlate now to the given community’s/paper’s readership.

Author Biography

Anna M. Blanch, University of St Andrews

Institute for Theology, Imagination and the Arts, St. Mary’s, School of Divinity, South Street, University of St Andrews, St Andrews, Fife, KY 16 9 JU, Scotland, United Kingdom.

References

Bignall, Lindsay, and Marion Bignall, A History of Manilla: 1853-1979 (Manilla, NSW: Manilla Historical Society, 1980).

Clifford, James. Routes: Travel and Translation in the Late Twentieth Century (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1997).

Donovan, Peter. Writing Local History. 2 vols. (Adelaide: Adelaide College of TAFE, 1986).

Finberg, H.P.K. ‘Approaches to Local History’, in Approaches to History, ed. by H.P.K. Finberg (London: Routledge and Keegan Paul, 1962), pp. 111-127.

Geeves, Phillip. Local History in Australia: A Guide for Beginners (Sydney: Royal Historical Society, 1977).

Griffiths, Tom, ‘Essaying the Truth’, Meanjin, 59.1 (2000), 128-144.

MacLeod, Alton Richmond. A Transformation of Manellae (Sydney: Halstead Press, 1949).

McCalman, Janet. Struggletown: Public and Private Life in Richmond: 1900-1965 (Carlton, Vic: Melbourne University Press, 1984).

New South Wales Office of Youth Affairs, Manilla Local Government Area: 1991 Census Sydney (Sydney: NSW Government, 1994).

Potts, David, ‘Two Modes of Writing History: The Poverty of Ethnography and the Potential of Narrative, Australian Historical Association Bulletin, 66-67, March-June (1991), 5-20.

Read, Peter, Belonging: Australians, Place and Aboriginal Ownership (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2000).

Read, Peter, Returning to Nothing: The Meaning of Lost Places (Melbourne: Cambridge University Press, 1996).

Withycombe, Mary, Local History Co-Ordination Project: Locating Australia's Past (Kensington, NSW: University New South Wales Press, 1988).

Downloads

Published

2009-11-05

Issue

Vol. 24 (2009): Featuring Folk Music and Cultural Change

Section

Studies in Australian Folklore

License

Authors who publish with this journal agree to the following terms:

  1. Copyright of items in their Australian Folklore format, and any associated fees (e.g.CAL), remains the property of the Association. This includes making articles freely available on the journal's website. 
  2. Authors are permitted and encouraged to post their work online (e.g. in institutional repositories or on their website) prior to and during the submission process, as it can lead to productive exchanges, as well as earlier and greater citation of published work (See The Effect of Open Access).
  3. Authors are welcome to archive their pre-print and post-print pdf copies of their articles under the SHERPA RoMEO 'Green' copyright classification.
  4. Authors are able to enter into separate, additional contractual arrangements for the non-exclusive distribution of the journal's published version of the work (e.g. publish it in a book), with an acknowledgement of its initial publication in this journal.