The Victorians: Settling

The relationship between Victorians and the land which has sustained them throughout the long human occupation of the state is the focus of Tony Dingle’s volume.

He looks at how the land has been used and changed, first by hunters and gatherers and more recently by pastoralists, miners, farmers, manufacturers and city dwellers as they earned their living and created homes for themselves.

Settling begins with the Aborigines who were content to rely on nature’s bounty, and yet were able to adapt to a changing environment and survive and prosper for perhaps 40,000 years. European settlers had grander ambitions and came in search of wealth. The challenge they faced was to use Victoria’s resources profitably yet not destroy them in the process.

Victoria’s soils were identified as its greatest asset and there were persistent attempts to create a society of small farmers. Nevertheless during the twentieth century the state has increasingly urbanised and industrialised. By the affluent 1960s and 1970s the majority of Victorians worked in offices, factories or shops and lived in Melbourne’s suburbs. Although their work no longer linked them directly to the land, the environmental campaigns of these years indicate that people had developed a greater appreciation of the unspoilt bush and of the importance of a pleasant living environment.

Settling offers a new interpretation of Victoria’s past. Familiar episodes are presented in a new light and matters not discussed in other general histories are here given prominence. The changes which it charts are seen through the eyes of individuals, enabling it to offer fresh insight into the lives of generations of ordinary Victorians.