Nostalgia and sensational tourism shape Australians view of the past
Associate Professor Richard White
Visiting locations of historical significance is not a recent occurrence for Australian tourists.
In actual fact, they became interested in visiting their past as early as the 1920s when Australian society discovered it had a past worth visiting.
Eminent Australian cultural historian Associate Professor Richard White from the University of Sydney will discuss Australians’ fascination with the lurid, the macabre and the sensational, which often undermined more respectable perspectives of Australia’s past, at an upcoming lecture.
Associate Professor White, currently a visiting Senior Research Fellow at the Australia and International Tourism Research Unit and the National Centre for Australian Studies at Monash University, will look at how Australians’ fascination with their seeing their country has shaped their understand of the past.
“While Australian governments were prepared to celebrate explorers, pioneers and political figures, the past that tourists persisted in seeking out was often a more sensational one,” Associate Professor White said.
“They were interested in visiting such sites as Port Arthur in Tasmainia or Glenrowan, the site of Ned Kelly’s last stand.
“Convicts, bushrangers and rebellious diggers became standard tourist fare surprisingly early and, by catering for more vulgar tastes, tourist operators and ordinary tourists themselves have written their own versions of Australia’s past.”
Associate Professor White will also discuss how the emergence of an interest in Australia’s nostalgic past, driven by the car, urbanisation and a sentimental pioneer tradition, has also contributed to the understanding of Australia's past.
“The sensational and the sentimental came together in 1932 at the opening of an iconic tourist site, Gundagai’s Dog on the Tuckerbox,” Associate Professor White said.
Associate Professor White has been teaching Australian history and the history of travel since 1989 and holds an ARC Discovery Grant for a project exploring the history of tourism to the past in Australia.
‘The Making of a Tourist Past in Australia’ will be held from 6pm on Tuesday 4 December in Lecture Theatre B235, Building H, Monash University Caulfield campus.