Within the history of explorations, a more precise definition of inland Australia geomorphology, hydrography and climatic conditions is a very recent acquisition After pointing out main steps in discovering southern continent, the paper deals with the following events concerning the most relevant routes traced to explore distant territories in the heart of Australia. If at the end of the nineteenth century most of mountain system, river basins and temporary lakes were detected, it is with the subsequent need to expand pastures and further mineral prospecting that the newly formed federal government fosters more and more accurate explorations of inland vast open spaces. Such efforts also took advantage of the support of Royal Geographical Society, so that reports of many expeditions were regularly published in the Journal of the Society. More than explorations to discover the unknown, it were in-depth field trips to outline in detail the actual economic potential of the outback. The increase of field research can be easily evaluated as a consequence of the great Depression: availability of new territories to exploit could obviously be very helpful in facing the worrying effects of recession. In reports emerge two antithetical positions: on one hand the optimists, new pioneers of the nationalist rhetoric, eager in building the frontier mythology, on the other the watchful gaze of the determinist geography that does not hesitate in deconstructing this groundless territorial myth. Such a disagreement was globally widespread, strongly affected by both economic crisis and the raise of nationalism, whose dynamics have not ceased to involve popular perceptions and social attitudes until the present day.

L'outback australiano: da terra incognita al mito della frontiera. In cerca della mitica Terra Australis

VALLERANI, Francesco
2013-01-01

Abstract

Within the history of explorations, a more precise definition of inland Australia geomorphology, hydrography and climatic conditions is a very recent acquisition After pointing out main steps in discovering southern continent, the paper deals with the following events concerning the most relevant routes traced to explore distant territories in the heart of Australia. If at the end of the nineteenth century most of mountain system, river basins and temporary lakes were detected, it is with the subsequent need to expand pastures and further mineral prospecting that the newly formed federal government fosters more and more accurate explorations of inland vast open spaces. Such efforts also took advantage of the support of Royal Geographical Society, so that reports of many expeditions were regularly published in the Journal of the Society. More than explorations to discover the unknown, it were in-depth field trips to outline in detail the actual economic potential of the outback. The increase of field research can be easily evaluated as a consequence of the great Depression: availability of new territories to exploit could obviously be very helpful in facing the worrying effects of recession. In reports emerge two antithetical positions: on one hand the optimists, new pioneers of the nationalist rhetoric, eager in building the frontier mythology, on the other the watchful gaze of the determinist geography that does not hesitate in deconstructing this groundless territorial myth. Such a disagreement was globally widespread, strongly affected by both economic crisis and the raise of nationalism, whose dynamics have not ceased to involve popular perceptions and social attitudes until the present day.
2013
3
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Utilizza questo identificativo per citare o creare un link a questo documento: https://hdl.handle.net/10278/44039
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