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Uncharted Waters? Cultures Of Sea Transport And Mobility In New Zealand Colonial History, Frances Steel Feb 2014

Uncharted Waters? Cultures Of Sea Transport And Mobility In New Zealand Colonial History, Frances Steel

Frances Steel

On a tour of Australia, New Zealand and Fiji in 1909, assistant undersecretary of state for the colonies Sir Charles Lucas ventured to suggest 'that in Australia the "bush" must necessarily have a greater effect on the future than in New Zealand, and that in New Zealand the sea will play a greater part in the call of the race than in Australia'. The 'back blocks', he remarked, 'have more especially fashioned Australian life and character'. Although brief and impressionistic, his assessment of the relationship between geography, identity and the course of history still resonates today. The bush is a …


Cruising New Zealand’S West Coast Sounds: Fiord Tourism In The Tasman World C.1870–1910, Frances Steel Feb 2014

Cruising New Zealand’S West Coast Sounds: Fiord Tourism In The Tasman World C.1870–1910, Frances Steel

Frances Steel

The hugely popular summer cruise tours of the West Coast Sounds in the South Island of New Zealand reveal a colonial history of leisured mobility and landscape appreciation common to New Zealand and Australia. Cruising the Sounds was a practice imbued with privilege, exclusivity, emotional upliftment and wonder, generating shared attachments to wilderness space. This culture of maritime tourism offers new insights into the mobile practices which shaped the Tasman World, and points to the centrality of ships and shipping routes as spaces of transcolonial history.