The southern frontier : Australia, Antarctica and empire in the Southern Ocean world / Rohan Howitt.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Howitt, Rohan, author.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Discoveries in geography.

Discoveries in geography--Australian.

Public opinion.

Antarctica--Discovery and exploration.

Antarctica.

Antarctica--History.

Australian Antarctic Territory--Discovery and exploration.

Australian Antarctic Territory.

Australian Antarctic Territory--History.

Antarctica--Australian Antarctic Territory.

Australia.

Genre:

History

Physical Description:

304 pages (viii, 296) : maps ; 24 cm

Other Title:

Australia, Antarctica and empire in the Southern Ocean world.

Place of Publication:

Carlton, Victoria : Melbourne University Press, 2025.

Summary:

"Antarctica looms large in the Australian psyche - as a place of science, adventure and peril. Our romantic entanglement with this unique environment is deep and enduring. The Southern Frontier traces Australia's Antarctic obsession from its origins in the nineteenth century to the creation of the Australian Antarctic Territory and a permanent national Antarctic program in the 1930s and 1940s. It reconstructs Australian ideas, beliefs and anxieties about the Antarctic and shows how Australians came to imagine their nation as having a natural right - perhaps even a destiny - to explore, exploit and control the world to their south. By examining how and why Australia relentlessly pursued the acquisition of its Antarctic Territory, Rohan Howitt recovers a forgotten way of thinking about this region: as one frontier of an Australian Empire stretching from the equator to the South Pole. At a time when the Australian Government is ramping up its investment in Antarctica and geopolitical tensions are on the rise, The Southern Frontier provides the historical explanation for how Australians came to see the world to their south as a natural extension of the nation's territory"--Publisher's description.

Contents:

Introduction: reorientating the map

Australia and the Southern Ocean World

'The memorable first of June': the Australian colonies and early Antarctic exploration

'The radius of their duty': debating the value of the Southern frontier

'Destiny': Antarctica and visions of Australia's future in the 1880s

'Another Klondyke': Australia and the renewal of Antarctic exploration in the 1890s

'The reading of yesterday's menu to a hungry man': Antarctica fever in the early commonwealth

'A golden El Dorado down south': Australia and the race for the Pole

'Unfair advantage': rights and responsibilities in the Australian Antarctic

'The equator to the Pole': performing sovereignty in the Australian Antarctic

Conclusion: exposed timbers

the afterlife of the Australian Antarctic.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references (pages 225-278) and index.

ISBN:

9780522880519

0522880517

OCLC:

1524431839

Publisher Number:

90104620776