Backbencher

Tuesday’s class period was a different and exciting one. Not only did we get to talk to someone across the world, I also found out there was a fourth floor to the IACC. We had the opportunity to listen to a lecture by a professor of History at Charles Stuart University in Wagga Wagga Australia. Troy Whitford talked a lot about early settlement of Australia and attempted to debunk some stereotypes about the convict settlers. Australia for the most part was considered an "open jail" which had the cultural and social values of 18th century Brittan. He went on to talk about the Eureka Stockade which was a labor strike. Dr. Whitford believed that this occurrence has gained way too much admiration for what it actually stood for. HE then went on to talk about Australia through the 1920s and the Australia of post WWII. A major idea Dr. Whitford was attempting to get across to us students was that Australia and Australians are not socialists. He wanted to point out that the ideas of mateship did not have social overtones. I agree with what he said, but to be honest I never really thought Australia was a socialist nation. It was interesting that Dr. Whitford was as excited as we were for this lecture because it is rare to find people studying Australia who are not Australian. Dr. Whitford was also a great counterpoint to Manning Clark. As far as we know Clark was the only historian in Australia. Obviously that is not correct, but Dr. Whitford did an excellent job of showing a different idea about the history of Australia and what is important. One major difference is the absence of bush values in Dr. Whitford's idea of Australian history.