- Title
- Wine, olives, silk and fruits: the Mediterranean plant complex and agrarian visions for a 'practical economic future' in colonial Australia
- Creator
- Dunstan, David; McIntyre, Julie
- Relation
- Journal of Australian Colonial History Vol. 16, p. 29-50
- Relation
- http://www.une.edu.au/about-une/academic-schools/school-of-humanities/research/journal-of-australian-colonial-history/jach-contents/jach-volumes/volume-16-2014
- Publisher
- University of New England, School of Humanities
- Resource Type
- journal article
- Date
- 2014
- Description
- The early success of pastoralism in Australia, and of British styles of agriculture such as grain cropping, have obscured the role of Mediterranean plants - wine grapes, olives, silk and fruits - in British imperial expansion and therefore in the vision for early Australia. A comparative historical approach shows continuity in this vision from earliest English colonisation of North America to the early Australian colonies where Mediterranean crops were cultivated and encouraged for cultural in addition to commercial gain. Social and cultural as well as economic visions for smallhold agriculture in Australia contained strong elements of emulating not only an idealised vanishing British yeomanry but also Mediterranean peasant farming traditions. This was due to perceived similarities in climate and a persistent sense of the potential value of Mediterranean crops for export.
- Subject
- wine industry; olive industry; Mediterranean plants; colonial Australia
- Identifier
- http://hdl.handle.net/1959.13/1066820
- Identifier
- uon:18245
- Identifier
- ISSN:1441-0370
- Language
- eng
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