Colonial Frontiers and Family Fortunes: Two Studies of Rural and Urban Victoria
Australian History Social History Colonial History Genealogy & Family History Adult Education Textbook Victorian-era Studies Biography & True Stories
Colonial Frontiers and Family Fortunes: Two Studies of Rural and Urban Victoria is the 1989 illustrated paperback that collectors and Australian-history buffs hunt for when they want a single, well-documented window onto how colonialism played out on both the bush blocks and the city streets of Victoria. Published by the University of Melbourne and long out of print, this vintage textbook distills five leading scholars’ archival work into two compelling narratives: one tracks the fortunes of squatter dynasties on the land, the other maps the rise of mercantile families in booming Melbourne. Together they reveal how land selection, convict labour, gold-rush wealth and global capital intertwined to shape modern Victoria.
Inside you get 240 pages of primary-source muscle—maps, sketches, family trees, shipping lists, rate books and rare photographs—anchored by the social-history expertise of Jane Beer, Charles Fahey, Patricia Grimshaw, Melanie Raymond and Jane Marjorie. Unlike sweeping national histories, this volume zooms in on ordinary households: a widow contesting a will, an ex-convict buying a slab hut, a merchant’s daughter marrying into squattocracy. Those micro-stories, cross-referenced with property ledgers and court records, show how gender, class and Indigenous dispossession determined who prospered and who disappeared from the record.
Because it was produced as an adult-learning resource, the writing is crisp, footnoted and classroom-tested, making it perfect for genealogists, teachers, heritage consultants or anyone writing family or local history. The generous illustrations—many never reprinted—let you identify period buildings, survey districts and even clothing styles at a glance. Copies in clean internal condition, like this one, are increasingly scarce; spotting to the outer cover is common on the 1989 matte stock and is noted here strictly for accuracy.
For buyers, this is the edition that turns fragmented Ancestry hints into a coherent story: place your forebears inside the legal and economic machinery of colonial Victoria and watch the archive come alive. Secure it now and you hold a tangible piece of Melbourne’s academic heritage—an essential reference that no digitised scan can replicate.
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