Environment, Race, And Nationhood In Australia: Revisiting The Empty North
by Russell McGregor /
2016 / English / PDF
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This new study offers a timely and compelling account of why past
generations of Australians have seen the north of the country as an
empty land, and how those perceptions of Australia’s tropical
regions impact current policy and shape the self-image of the
nation. It considers the origins of these concerns - from fears of
invasion and moral qualms about leaving resources lying idle, from
apprehensions about white nationhood coming under international
censure and misgivings about the natural attributes of the north -
and elucidates Australians’ changing appreciations of the natural
environments of the north, their shifting attitudes toward race and
their unsettled conceptions of Asia.
This new study offers a timely and compelling account of why past
generations of Australians have seen the north of the country as an
empty land, and how those perceptions of Australia’s tropical
regions impact current policy and shape the self-image of the
nation. It considers the origins of these concerns - from fears of
invasion and moral qualms about leaving resources lying idle, from
apprehensions about white nationhood coming under international
censure and misgivings about the natural attributes of the north -
and elucidates Australians’ changing appreciations of the natural
environments of the north, their shifting attitudes toward race and
their unsettled conceptions of Asia.