Centenary of Federation - Writers Program


Did you ever wonder what happened to the Tasmanian film industry or how tourists visited the State in the last 100 years, or want to know what a typical Federation garden was like? Or perhaps your interest is law, literature, science, the environment, the history of mining and forestry, education or who the best artists in Tasmania this century were. How did the Tasmanian Police Force catch all those criminals before DNA?

To celebrate the Centenary of Federation a cross section of our community in Tasmania have contributed articles on their area of expertise to show the advances we’ve made as a community, society and economy over the last 100 years, and Tasmania’s role in Federation in view of the future. Here you can access a wide section of educational and entertaining articles that will be added to throughout the year. If you wish to add your views opinions or even create your own article for inclusion on this web site, then email us on centenary@federation100.tas.gov.au



 
From fingerprints to DNA,Geoff Easton looks at ways The Tasmanian Police Force has evolved over the century.

 

Attempts to create a Tasmanian film industry have evolved over the Century. John Honey discusses the ups and downs of Tasmanian filmmaking.


 

Medical research has come a long way in the last 100 years and one of the world's leading medical research institutions can be found in Tasmania. Nicolas Turner profiles the Menzies Centre for Population Health Research.


 

By the time of Federation tourists were discovering the delights of Tasmania. Helen Thomas shows how the industry has developed over the last 100 years.


 

Don Frankcombe talks about the Tasmanian Forest Industry through the 20th Century.


 

Tasmania maintains a strong reputation in the studio crafts that can be traced back to the Arts and Crafts Movement and the beginning of Federation. Peter Hughes discusses the quest for a style in Arts and Crafts suited to this country that was not entirely derived from Europe.


 

In the future Australia may no longer be dry and red but big wet and blue according to Don Michel who argues that it is the ocean that holds out a promise of wealth and prosperity to those nations that will learn to work with her in harmony.


 

Change was the norm in Tasmanian education for the whole century. New ideas were assimilated from overseas and interstate and adapted to the Tasmanian setting but as Alistair Home looks back over the last 100 years he realizes that education today and in the future is faced with new challenges and issues.


 

As Australia became a Commonwealth at the time of Federation new types of buildings were to develop through the ensuing years which reflected the growth and development of the Australian nation. Peter Cripps highlights the role of Post Offices in Tasmania as an icon of Federation.


 

A number of Tasmanians of Irish descent have played an important role in their country’s government. Dr Richard Davis explores the connection between the Tasmanian Irish and Australian politics.


 

When looking back over 100 years Ian Pearce argues that the archives of the State are one of the things that enable us to understand and reflect upon how we have shaped our society.


 

Tasmanian inspired art works have been both innumerable and prodigious. Sue Backhouse discovers that Tasmania has been and will continue to be an important sustaining influence on creative output.


 

Over the summer period of 1894 - 95, Hobart held its first and only World Expo. Peter Mercer argues that the staging of this event gives an understanding of the structure and nature of Tasmanian society just prior to Federation.


 

As we celebrate the Centenary of Federation let us not forget the Federation garden style and the specific plants that are such an important part of these gardens. Ann Cripps shows how gardens changed and evolved at the turn of the century.


 

Considering the intolerable level of homelessness among young people and the numbers of children on the streets today Dennis Daniels looks back over the century to see how far we have come in our whole approach to vulnerable and disturbed children.


 

The literary situation has changed considerably in the last twenty-five years throughout the whole of Australia with the development of the cultural and arts industries but Vivian Smith explains how poetry has been important in Tasmania from the beginnings of white settlement in 1804.


 

Today, it does not surprise us that the courts decide whether legislation is constitutional or not. However, in 1901, the people, politicians and judges were not used to the courts’ exercising this power and hence did not accept their right to do so without an argument. Michael Stokes discusses famous landmark cases and changes to the justice system.


 

What well-guarded secret did Van Diemen’s Land hold that drew so many of the colonial artists to our shores? Nevin Hurst profiles the prominent artists who contributed to the recording and interpretation of our culture in a variety of ways. Following Federation the art scene in Tasmania settled into a more organised and orderly pattern interrupted, of course, by two world wars.


 

Since its foundation in 1890 the University of Tasmania has made a significant contribution to the Australian and international community. A selection of profiles of people associated with the University who have exercised a key influence in the level and direction of change that has taken place since European settlement have been compiled by a variety of prominent contributors.


 

The discovery of alluvial gold under Mt Lyell on the West Coast of Tasmania in 1883 marked the beginning of what Ron Bugg maintains was one of the most significant destructions of an environment by mining. Today the centenary of destruction has ceased. The final healing, however, will take many more centuries.


 

Virtually all of the Tasmania’s leading politicians of the 1890s took part in the Federation debate, and most of them wanted it to come about, or at least argued for conditions which they saw as optimal, especially for Tasmania’s interests. Professor Michael Roe discusses Tasmania’s involvement in Federation.


 

Federation in the Commonwealth of Australia has been crucial for Tasmania.
Professor Michael Roe points out the major events that shaped Tasmania in the last 100 years.


 

Tasmanian politics has always had a conservative cast in the sense that it has never moved to the extremes of ideology or practice. At the turn of the century Tasmanians voted overwhelmingly for federation but what happened after that? Dr Ralph Chapman discusses Tasmania at the Political Crossroads.


 

Jeff Gordon investigates the changes to shipping in our ports and discovers that Federation was only one of many factors that impacted on shipping to and from our Island State.


 

Well-known Tasmanian composer Peter Sculthorpe shares his personal view of Tasmania’s music. He argues that Tasmania has a significant place in the history of Australian music since Federation but too little is known about the breadth of our musical heritage. Tasmania, he maintains is the birthplace of many distinguished performers.


 

Design - a word like love, means nothing, yet touches everything. Gary Cleveland argues that Design is as integral to our very existence in 2001 as it was in 1901 and says Tasmania is among the leaders in the world in finding ways of awakening our society to how the people can benefit from applied design thinking.


 

Tasmania has been blessed with many marvellous athletes, both men and women, in a huge array of sports and they deserve continued and lengthy accolades. But no-one has commanded respect on the international stage for so long and with so many quality performances as David Boon Ñ in a sport regarded as perhaps the most popular in this country. This is why Mark Thomas believes Boon is a worthy subject to celebrate Tasmania and the Centenary of Federation.


 

At the beginning of January 2001 ABC Broadcaster Chris Wisbey’s grandmother is dying. At a time when our country is celebrating the Centenary of Federation Chris poignantly describes how his grandmother has few regrets from a life that encapsulates our Nation’s first 100 years: two world-wars, depression and emigration, life lived from the horse-drawn to the computer age.


 

Given the day to day hardships and toil required to survive the difficult and, in some instances, primitive living and working conditions of the West Coast of Tasmania, the inhabitants of this bourgeoning mining community could have been excused for commemorating the event of Federation with as little fuss as possible.
Lou Rae takes us back to the days leading up to Federation in this isolated and at times inhospitable part of Tasmania and highlights what really happened.


 

Like several other offshore islands — Ireland above all — Tasmania has produced over the years a crop of literary talent quite out of proportion to its limited population.
Margaret Scott discusses the past but argues that over the past two or three decades more and more poets have settled in Tasmania, more local talent has been fostered and Hobart has been hailed as the poetry capital of Australia. Tasmania’s prose writing, especially its fiction, has also prospered in recent years.


 

Like the rest of Australia, Tasmania has welcomed the settlement of people from other countries throughout this century. In the hundred years since Federation, the composition of Tasmania's population has changed enormously due to international migration, but as Hilary Lovibond Johnston discusses, this process has not been gradual and incremental. Two sharp points of change punctuate our population's journey from the Tasmania of 1901 to the Tasmania of 2001


 

According to Dr Bruce Felmingham the High Courts 1983 decision to forgo construction of The Gordon below Franklin hydro- power scheme was the defining moment in the last 100 years of Tasmania’s economic history. This article looks not only at Tasmania’s economy in the past but also forecasts Tasmania’s economy and employment opportunities in the 21st Century with claims that Tasmania will not be able to maintain its status as one of the world’s best kept secrets.


 

Today world news reaches us within minutes via satellite communication but on January 1, 1901, the concept of mass media was as alien to Tasmanians, as was the idea of a man landing on the moon. Nicola Goc discusses how the media in Tasmania viewed Federation and shows how news gathering and news dissemination to large numbers of people only happened through public meetings or through newspapers which often took weeks or months to arrive.


 

The way people purchase and prepare their food has changed enormously over the century. Judith Sweet discusses how Tasmanians today compared to those in 1901 have great choice and diversity in what and how they eat.


 

On Federation the new states handed customs administration to the Commonwealth. Joan Beddoe discusses the history of customs in Tasmania and how the transfer deprived Tasmania of a lucrative source of income.