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

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Howitt, Rohan, none, author.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Antarctica--Discovery and exploration--Australian.

Antarctica.

Australia--History.

Australia.

Australian Antarctic Territory--Discovery and exploration.

Australian Antarctic Territory.

Physical Description:

viii, 296 pages : maps ; 24 cm.

Place of Publication:

Carlton, Victoria : Melbourne University Press, 2025.

Summary:

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.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references and index.

ISBN:

9780522880519

0522880517

9780522880526

0522880525

OCLC:

1524431839

Publisher Number:

90104620776