Heroic history and public spectacle : Sydney 1938

Abstract

This thesis is about white Australian history and public spectacle. It analyses the representation of white colonisation—'heroic history'—in elaborate public spectacles which were staged in Sydney in 1938 to celebrate the 150th anniversary of white settlement. The uses of history in these spectacles are discussed in terms of their structure, organisation, opposition, and relationship to a wider field of historical representation. The operations of two kinds of heroic history are examined in detail: visionary history, to do with the visionary anticipation of white Australia by singular historical individuals, notably Arthur Phillip; and pioneering history, concerned with the experience of settlers on the frontier.