There are several elements of the text by W.K. Hancock that provide clues that show it was written in the 1930s. Firstly, Hancock states that; "a bare six generations" had been recorded in Australia under British rule. Furthermore, Hancock claims that the Australia had been populated by a civilisation that was “ready-made”; one that came ready to impose their culture and domination with no qualms about suppressing any Indigenous populations, and one that was quite ready to accept that life in Australia would in nearly every way, be exactly comparable to life in England.
Hancock also displays the influence of early theories of Aboriginal culture, primarily the concept that the Indigenous Australians were a fundamentally incapable race who “never imagined that first decisive step from the economy of the chase which would have made them masters of the soil”. To the early observers Indigenous Australian cultures, the “advance of British civilisation made inevitable the ‘natural progress of the aboriginal race towards extinction.’” Hancock calls Aboriginals “primitive people”, whom the Australian democracy, in its benevolence, had absent-mindedly forgotten. They on the whole were expected to die out except for a remnant few who could be ‘saved’ by being moved to “well-policed local reserves in Central and Northern Australia.”
Hancock also displays the naive opinion that was shared by settlers all over Australia at the beginning of the twentieth century, that “if a balance could be struck, it would probably be reckoned that alien men and animals and vegetation have enriched the soil more than they have impoverished it.” Hancock essentially shows no acceptance of the fact that fundamentally the Australian environment is different from that of Europe, that Australian land is fundamentally incapable of supporting traditional methods of farming. Instead he proposes that Australian land is “unique among raw materials because, abuse it as we may, given time and knowledge it is generally possible to rectify even the most profoundest errors of the past”; essentially Hancock presumes that no matter how much damage had been inflicted by the greed of the settlers who knew nothing of the fragility of the environment, the vast continent had the eternal ability to rejuvenate. Furthermore, Hancock suggests that the damage that had been inflicted was abating, healing as “impatience to possess slackens into true partnership.”
Hancock also displays the influence of early theories of Aboriginal culture, primarily the concept that the Indigenous Australians were a fundamentally incapable race who “never imagined that first decisive step from the economy of the chase which would have made them masters of the soil”. To the early observers Indigenous Australian cultures, the “advance of British civilisation made inevitable the ‘natural progress of the aboriginal race towards extinction.’” Hancock calls Aboriginals “primitive people”, whom the Australian democracy, in its benevolence, had absent-mindedly forgotten. They on the whole were expected to die out except for a remnant few who could be ‘saved’ by being moved to “well-policed local reserves in Central and Northern Australia.”
Hancock also displays the naive opinion that was shared by settlers all over Australia at the beginning of the twentieth century, that “if a balance could be struck, it would probably be reckoned that alien men and animals and vegetation have enriched the soil more than they have impoverished it.” Hancock essentially shows no acceptance of the fact that fundamentally the Australian environment is different from that of Europe, that Australian land is fundamentally incapable of supporting traditional methods of farming. Instead he proposes that Australian land is “unique among raw materials because, abuse it as we may, given time and knowledge it is generally possible to rectify even the most profoundest errors of the past”; essentially Hancock presumes that no matter how much damage had been inflicted by the greed of the settlers who knew nothing of the fragility of the environment, the vast continent had the eternal ability to rejuvenate. Furthermore, Hancock suggests that the damage that had been inflicted was abating, healing as “impatience to possess slackens into true partnership.”
Left: [Date unknown] This image depicts exposed tree roots in the Mallee region, caused by land-clearing and unsustainable farming methods that expose the topsoil to erosion from wind and rain. The stump extends two and a half feet from the earth. The damage that was done, and is still being done, to the land was begun by early settlers, who, eager as they were to farm and log timber to export, ignored the possible consequences and cleared vast tracts of land, that may now never recover.
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