Environment, Race, and Nationhood in Australia Revisiting the Empty
This new study offers a timely and compelling account of why past generations of Australians have seen the north of the country as an empty land, and how those perceptions of Australia’s tropical regions impact current policy and shape the self-image of t
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Environment, Race, and Nationhood in Australia
Russell McGregor
Environment, Race, and Nationhood in Australia Revisiting the Empty North
Russell McGregor James Cook University Townsville, Queensland, Australia
ISBN 978-1-349-90573-7 ISBN 978-1-349-91509-5 DOI 10.1057/978-1-349-91509-5
(eBook)
Library of Congress Control Number: 2016939619 © The Editor(s) (if applicable) and The Author(s) 2016 This work is subject to copyright. All rights are solely and exclusively licensed by the Publisher, whether the whole or part of the material is concerned, specifically the rights of translation, reprinting, reuse of illustrations, recitation, broadcasting, reproduction on microfilms or in any other physical way, and transmission or information storage and retrieval, electronic adaptation, computer software, or by similar or dissimilar methodology now known or hereafter developed. The use of general descriptive names, registered names, trademarks, service marks, etc. in this publication does not imply, even in the absence of a specific statement, that such names are exempt from the relevant protective laws and regulations and therefore free for general use. The publisher, the authors and the editors are safe to assume that the advice and information in this book are believed to be true and accurate at the date of publication. Neither the publisher nor the authors or the editors give a warranty, express or implied, with respect to the material contained herein or for any errors or omissions that may have been made. Cover illustration: © William Robinson / Alamy Stock Photo Printed on acid-free paper This Palgrave Macmillan imprint is published by Springer Nature The registered company is Nature America Inc. New York
To Caitilin and Lachlan, with love
PREFACE
“Beware of keeping the Far North empty,” American President Theodore Roosevelt warned Australians in December 1905. He also advised them to shed their fixation on British immigrants and, for the sake of peopling the north, encourage “the immigration of Southern Europeans, who will cultivate the rich country and become good Australians.”1 Roosevelt’s warning against leaving the north empty was widely publicized in the Australian press, to universal approbation. His recommendation of southern European immigrants drew mainly favorable press commentary, although sometimes with an edge of apprehension. The president’s representation of northern Australia as “rich country” also attracted media attention, mostly in agreement although some drew a different picture. One newspaper described the Northern Territory as a “torrid, malaria-stricken, almost rainless, and uninhabitable portion of the Commonwealth” which would remain a burden to whatever government held responsibility for it.2 Nonetheless, this newspaper, like all others, heeded Roosevelt’s counsel on the dangers of an empty north. One incentive for paying heed lay only a little further to the north. Apprehensions about Asia had intensified in the latter years of the nineteenth century, and at the beginning of
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