The Territory of Public Works: Technology and Governance in New South Wales 1856-1890

Abstract

This dissertation examines the intersection of governance and technical expertise in the construction of the settler-colonial of territory of New South Wales. The thesis has three aims: firstly, to provide a historical survey of the Public Works Department (PWD) in the second half of the nineteenth century, considering the evolution of its bureaucratic structure, responsibilities and output. Secondly to investigate the relationship of public works to other governmental and social structures including the judiciary, surveying and sanitation. Finally, to establish a historiographical framework in which architecture is subsumed within the larger technocratic apparatus of the settler-colonial project.

In 1856, the PWD was created to assert bureaucratic control over the construction of government buildings and infrastructure. Under consideration are the physical networks and artefacts of colonisation, along with the governmental structures that were responsible for their implementation. The thesis is arranged in two parts. The first part introduces the development of the PWD, its branches, leadership and structure, followed by an account of how the department and its works were integral in the control and measurement of the colonial territory. The second part examines the transformation of the periphery of Sydney by public works as the pressures of population growth, climate and colonial ambition drove an increasingly large-scale agenda.

Through this analysis new light is shed on the architecture and infrastructure of the PWD as public works and their role in the colonial occupation of New South Wales. Projects commonly situated outside architectural discourse are drawn into relationship with works that are familiar in Australian architectural history and both are disaggregated into an array of technics that are shown to be enmeshed with larger processes of colonial governance. At the heart of this analysis is the bureaucracy of the PWD: its organisation and mission.