Settler Space: a spatial history of nineteenth century Sydney

Abstract

This thesis criticises the production of settler space through the project of spatial history, applied to 19th century Sydney. It departs from settler-colonial studies by defending a historically- and geographically-materialist approach, emphasising the political-economic relationships that underpin Indigenous dispossession and settler space.

On a theoretical level, this thesis contributes to discussions of Lefebvre’s theory of the production of space by reflexively critiquing his ideas against the differential conditions of 19th century settler spaces. It elaborates his project of spatial history, arguing that it can comprehend how dispossession defines the production of settler space. At the same time, the specific features of his theory are limited to his European conditions, requiring fresh conceptual development in order to enable the critique of settler space.

The key problematic of settler space concerns how Indigenous dispossession organises the production of space and how the production of space re-organises ongoing dispossession. This thesis focusses on the social relations of landed property in order to better understand the dispossession of Indigenous land. In particular, it draws on Marx’s rent theory in order to appropriately characterise the dynamic tensions that underpin dispossession.

Crucially, the thesis develops the concept of abstract settler space to characterise the space of the Sydney Basin by the end of the nineteenth century. Like Lefebvre, this is understood in relation to the powers of capital and state to shape the production of space. Key to this concept, however, is the self-effacing character of settler space: the separation of histories of dispossession from the appearance of settler space. While other accounts recognise this self-effacing character, this thesis contributes a novel view by tracing the spatial history of this separation, and its relationships to the compulsions of capital and the abstractions of the settler state.