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The ‘Mallee-made man’: making masculinity in the Mallee lands of south eastern Australia, 1890–1940

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posted on 2025-01-20, 03:01 authored by Katie HolmesKatie Holmes
The southern Australian Mallee is a broad ecoregion comprising distinct landscapes, and the clearing and farming of these lands have presented specific challenges to generations of white settlers. Cultivation of this region was characterised as ‘one of the most strenuous and resolute battles with Nature’. So began the shaping of an enduring mythology around the ‘Mallee man’. In the context of the settler state, this mythology was forged through race, place and gender, with devastating environmental consequences. It has been consistently evoked to suggest that the specific environment of the Mallee worked to produce a special type of ‘home grown’ masculinity. At the same time, the State sought to provide a particular type of man to work the Mallee lands. This article examines the ways ideas about masculinity shaped men’s engagement with the environment and the impact of government settlement schemes on both the myth and lives of Mallee men.

History

Publication Date

2021-05-01

Journal

Environment and History

Volume

27

Issue

2

Pagination

25p. (p. 251-275)

Publisher

The White Horse Press

ISSN

0967-3407

Rights Statement

© 2021 The White Horse Press. This is a pre-copy-editing, author-produced version of an article accepted in 2021 following peer review for publication in Environment and History, https://doi.org/10.3197/096734021X16076828553520, 27(2), 251–275. The definitive publisher-authenticated version is available online, DOI: 10.3197/096734021X16076828553520.

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