VCE Australian history - units 3 & 4

Students investigate the historical role of humans in shaping the Australian landscape and ways in which the environment has influenced human activity.

Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples managed and actively changed the land in response to the environmental features and conditions of the Australian continent. Their perspectives towards land and sea are contrasted with colonisers and settlers whose different beliefs about and uses of land also changed the environment.  (VCE History Study Design 2022–2026 p.56)

• Flood, Josephine Original Australians: story of the Aboriginal people
  • includes chapters on pre-colonial, post-colonial and modern times
• ​Gammage, Bill The biggest estate on earth : how Aborigines made Australia 
• Rose, Deborah Bird Nourishing terrains : Australian Aboriginal views of landscape and wilderness 
• Pascoe, B. Dark emu : Aboriginal Australia and the birth of agriculture
• David, B., Barker, B., & McNiven, I. J. The Social Archaeology of Australian Indigenous Societies
• Blandowski, William  Australien in 142 photographischen - digitised copy at the State Library of Berlin. Illustrations of the daily life and customs of the Nyeri Nyeri people of the Murray River in 1857
  • Print copy in English Australia : William Blandowski’s illustrated encyclopaedia of Aboriginal Australia / edited by Harry Allen. 
• Broome, R., Fahey, C., Gaynor, A., Holmes, K. Mallee Country : land, people, history
  • this book investigates both pre-colonial and post-colonial land use in the Mallee.
• Wilkie, B. Gariwerd : an environmental history of the Grampians
• Lang, Gideon S. , Scott, Francis, Lang, Gideon S., & Lang, Gideon S. (1845). Land and labour in Australia : their past, present, and future connection and management considered, in a letter addressed to the Hon. Francis Scott, M.P. for Roxburgh, and Parliamentary Agent for New South Wales.
  • note this item was published in 1845 so is a view from the time.

• Lullfitz, A., Dortch, J., Hopper, S., Pettersen, C., Reynolds, R., & Guilfoyle, D. (2017). Human niche construction: Noongar evidence in pre-colonial southwestern Australia. Conservation and Society, 15 (2)
  • article considers the relationship and influence of the Noongar people with southwestern Australian flora
• Fletcher, M. S., Hall, T., & Alexandra, A. N. (2021). The loss of an indigenous constructed landscape following British invasion of Australia: An insight into the deep human imprint on the Australian landscape. Ambio, 50(1), 138–149.
• Prober, S. M., O’Connor, M. H., & Walsh, F. J. (2011). Australian Aboriginal Peoples’ Seasonal Knowledge: a Potential Basis for Shared Understanding in Environmental Management. Ecology and Society, 16(2).
• Brett P. Murphy, & David M. J. S. Bowman. (2007). The Interdependence of Fire, Grass, Kangaroos and Australian Aborigines: A Case Study from Central Arnhem Land, Northern Australia. Journal of Biogeography, 34(2), 237–250. 

The demand for wool, which was the original inspiration to settle the Port Phillip region, was also the driver for the subsequent pastoral expansion into the western and northern parts of the district. This led to the dispersal of population over a wide area resulting in clashes with the local Aborigines as well as unauthorised and unregulated occupation of land.

As a way of addressing the problem, in 1836 Governor Bourke introduced a grazing licence fee and established Land Commissioners, a system which was subsequently expanded by Governor Gipps and his successors.

Introductory information on the State Library of Victoria's ergo website

• The pastoral system
• Land administration
• The squattocracy

See also these Research Guides:

• Maps for local and family history
• Victoria's early history 1803-1851
• Bushfires in Victoria

There are many maps which show the location of pastoral runs, stations and squatter's runs at different times in Victoria's history. Some of these maps also include an index or directory, allowing searching by property owner/holder or locality. Many can be viewed online, others can be viewed at the Library.

Maps of early Victorian squatter/pastoral holdings, arranged by date:

A number of these describe the land at that time.

1847 - A map of Australia Felix - Thomas Ham

1849 - A map of Australia Felix - Thomas Ham

1851 - Ham's squatting map of Victoria - Thomas Ham

1853 - Ham's squatting map of Victoria - Thomas Ham

1854 - Ham's squatting map of Victoria - Thomas Ham

1856 - The squatting map of Victoria - Thomas Ham

1858 - The squatting map of Victoria - Thomas Ham

1859 - The squatting map of Victoria - Thomas Ham

1860 - Squatting map of Victoria -  James J. Blundell & Co

1861 - Squatting map of Victoria, Port Phillip District, New South Wales -  James J. Blundell & Co

1863 - Victoria 1863 - Department of Lands & Survey, Melbourne

1864-5 - Squatting map of Victoria - Thomas Ham

1869 - Victorian pastoral stations - W Owen

1927 - Victorian pastoral stations - H. E. C. Robinson Pty Ltd

To find maps of pastoral runs in our online catalogue: select Maps from the drop-down menu to the right of the search box using the keywords: land tenure victoria

To find maps of pastoral runs in other collections: search the map section of Trove with keywords such as land tenure victoria . Many of these are available online.