In the period 1930 to 1964, unprecedented attention was paid in England to the issue of working-class housing. Initially, the focus was on improving slum conditions and replacing slums with better housing in the interests of public health. As the years progressed, and particularly during and after the Second World War, focus moved to how homes could accommodate families and what they should ideally look like and contain. This thesis takes an expository approach, encompassing government policy and debate, literary sources and the numerous surveys that were undertaken throughout the period to satisfy middle-class curiosity about the living and working conditions of 'the other half'.

The five chapters trace the themes chronologically, starting with government, then the role of women in effecting change in housing conditions, through to how home was portrayed in contemporary literature and how that reflected the significant social and economic change that occurred throughout the period under investigation. The final chapter is concerned with the Mass Observation surveys into housing and the other investigations of the working-classes of England that arose from the developing sociological field.

What the thesis uncovers is that although the ideas around what constituted the ideal home changed little over the years 1930-1964, the means of achieving it did, and the issues that were uncovered in exposing what the idea of home was, remain current and relevant today.

The discovery of gold in nineteenth-century Victoria propelled society into a period of enormous change. Amidst unprecedented levels of immigration and intra-colonial migration, a widespread institutional building boom took place to officially control the newly formed mass transient population. Beechworth was one of many new towns to emerge in mid-nineteenth century Victoria and can be viewed as an exemplar of similar gold rush townships across the colony. Against a backdrop where fortunes were as easily lost as won, H.M. Prison Beechworth opened in 1864 and Mayday Hills Lunatic Asylum opened in 1867 as official mechanisms to control this evolving diaspora.

This thesis focuses on the relationship between the Gaol and Asylum in Beechworth to determine their level of interconnectedness and to understand how the mad and bad were treated and managed between 1856 and 1914. Using a mixed method approach, my research begins in eighteenth-century Britain, tracing the origins of the modern prison and lunatic asylum, and ends with a local case study of these two institutions in Beechworth.

My research demonstrates that the determination of whether an individual was institutionalised in a gaol or a lunatic asylum in late nineteenth-century Victoria was distinguished by a defined, rather than fine, line. Data sets created from prisoner and patient records, in addition to analysis of other archival material, identifies a distinct use of both institutions and, consequently, the funnelling into each of two distinct cohorts of ‘deviant’. The Gaol was used for short term stays with high rates of movement between gaols and high levels of prisoner recidivism. In contrast, the Asylum was used for longer term stays accommodating individuals considered a burden on society as evidenced by high levels of ill-health and death. This is most apparent in the experience of Chinese nationals, who were incarcerated in the Asylum at a disproportionate level.

During a period in which institutions focused on classification and the growth of institutional specialisation, Beechworth Gaol housed prisoners convicted of minor offences with Pentridge Prison in Melbourne identified as the location for serious offenders. Analysis of patient records and the low rate of discharge and high rate of death identifies Beechworth Asylum as a repository for the chronically mentally unwell, although it was never officially categorised as such. This is most clearly shown by an analysis of patients transferred to Beechworth Asylum from other asylums across Victoria. Transfers between the Gaol and Asylum were minimal, and while they were connected during their formative years because of shared origins and philosophies, they developed along different paths with minimal inmate movement and no obvious sharing of staff or policies. This thesis assists in deepening our understanding of how the mad and bad were managed in late nineteenth-century Victoria.

This study addresses the question: how did social and political divisions influence the economic and environmental development of Kempsey during the colonial period up to 1865? Primary documents including personal letters, journals, memoirs, political and governmental papers, along with a range of colonial newspapers have been studied and interpreted to form a social historical solution to the question. Due to the range of sources available for this investigation, a variation of methodologies has been employed, with particular emphasis on an empirical qualitative analysis. In addition to considering existing non-scholarly thematic histories of the Macleay Valley, this thesis draws existing scholarly investigations together and builds upon them, looking into the interdependence between society and environment, politics and geographical developments, culture and social movements to piece together the story of Kempsey and uncover the key events which have led to long lasting impacts on the town. No other scholarly study of this kind has been undertaken to bring the entire complex and multifaceted story of Kempsey’s early years into one scholarly investigation. Implications for this study highlight the important factor that powerful social and political divisions in a community have when important decisions about town planning, environmental protection, and issues of social justice need to be addressed. These divisions can lead to catastrophic outcomes that could impact generations to follow, as shown in the tumultuous history of Kempsey, New South Wales.

While it is widely accepted that the Irish and Scottish-Highland peasants who were fleeing oppression, persecution, and the devastating effects of the potato famine were refugees, this is not the case for contemporaneous emigrants from the southwest of England. However, this research into the immigrants who arrived in New South Wales (NSW) from the United Kingdom (UK) during 1849 reveals that there were several Dorsetshire villages near Blandford which provided a disproportionate percentage of their inhabitants to immigration. Home to the likes of the Tolpuddle Martyrs, this area was renowned for its political agitation against low wages and squalid living conditions. Oppressed, persecuted, and facing starvation with the arrival of the potato blight, these immigrants from Dorset had little choice but to flee their homes. As such, just like the rural poor of Ireland and the Scottish Highlands who were fleeing their ancestral homes at this time, they too were refugees.

Under the auspices of the Blandford Branch of the Colonisation Society (BBCS), between five and ten percent of the population of the towns of Durweston, Stourpaine and Child Okeford departed for a new life in NSW. Their decision to emigrate was a result of endemic systematic oppression, low wages, poor living conditions, the enclosure of common lands and the arrival of the potato blight. Their choice was stark – flee to Australia or remain and face a constant struggle to survive. Turning to the local clergy who manipulated the rules of the NSW squatters’ Colonisation Society, these Dorsetshire refugees made good their escape to a new life in the colonies.

Besides the reclassification of this group of Dorsetshire agricultural labourers and their families from immigrants to refugees, this thesis highlights the devastating effect that the Potato Blight had on the rural poor of Dorset. This research also reveals the role played by the BBCS in helping these Dorsetshire poor find a new life in NSW. It also highlights the nature of Francis Scott’s appointment as the NSW agent in London and the influence that the 1823 Cambridge University Arts alumni had in the ‘Squattocracy’ of NSW. In turn this research shifts the paradigm of the creation of the Society for the Promotion of Colonisation from philanthropy to the exploitation of the rural poor of the UK. Finally, it illuminates the contributions of the BBCS cohort to NSW society during the later part of the nineteenth century.