Edith Cowan University Research Online Theses: Doctorates and Masters Theses 1-1-1996 Katharine Susannah Prichard's Coonardoo : an historical study Marion V. Austin-Crowe Edith Cowan University Follow this and additional works at: https://ro.ecu.edu.au/theses Part of the Australian Studies Commons Recommended Citation Austin-Crowe, M. V. (1996). Katharine Susannah Prichard's Coonardoo : an historical study. https://ro.ecu.edu.au/theses/962 This Thesis is posted at Research Online. https://ro.ecu.edu.au/theses/962 Edith Cowan University Copyright Warning You may print or download ONE copy of this document for the purpose of your own research or study. The University does not authorize you to copy, communicate or otherwise make available electronically to any other person any copyright material contained on this site. You are reminded of the following: Copyright owners are entitled to take legal action against persons who infringe their copyright. A reproduction of material that is protected by copyright may be a copyright infringement. Where the reproduction of such material is done without attribution of authorship, with false attribution of authorship or the authorship is treated in a derogatory manner, this may be a breach of the author’s moral rights contained in Part IX of the Copyright Act 1968 (Cth). Courts have the power to impose a wide range of civil and criminal sanctions for infringement of copyright, infringement of moral rights and other offences under the Copyright Act 1968 (Cth). Higher penalties may apply, and higher damages may be awarded, for offences and infringements involving the conversion of material into digital or electronic form. KATHARINE SUSANNAH PRICHARD'S COONARDOO: AN msTORICAL STUDY by Marion Virginia W. Austin-Crowe, B.A. Hons. A Thesis Submitted in Fulfilment of the Requirements for the Award of Master of Arts at thr Faculty of Arts, Department of English Edith Cowan University December 1996. ii ABSTRACT The focusof this thesis is Katharine Susannah Prichard's novel, Coonardoo ( 1929), and its capacity to provide a framework forthe reconstruction of the historical situation in the North-West region of Western Australia during the period mid-1860s to late 1920s. The thesis has a dual purpose: to contextualise the novel in terms of the historical, political, ideological, and socialsituation; and to readthe novel in ways which reveal its reconstructionof the wider historical context. My approach is a new historicist close reading of the text. Specific events or situations are scrutinised for their power to convey insights into the extra-textual situation. For example, the textualisation of the relationship between the white hero and the Aboriginal heroine leads to an exploration of attitudes to interracial sexual encounters in the periodof the novel and in the author's contemporary milieu. Included in this work is an exposition of the various industries which contributed substantially to the economic development of the North-Westregion. These are treated in some depth in relationto their historical circumstances but with particular reference to textual events and situations. An important area of discussion is the socialand economic situation which developed between the European settlers in the North-Westand the indigenous populationof the region. Particular reference is made to the displacement, subjugation and diasporaof the region's Aboriginal population. iii The pre-contact culturaland religiouspractices of the Aborigines of the North-West region,and the extent to which thesepatterns survived into the author's contemporary period,is investigated in the thesis. An appraisal is made of the author's claim that during her visit to the North-Westin 1926, she directly observedthe Aboriginal traditional formsrepresented in Coonardoo. Prichard's own socio-culturaland ideological position is exploredin relationto the Aboriginal dimension in the novel. Especially relevantis the author's adherenceto the theory of Social Darwinism and to the view, prevalent in her society,that the extinction of the Aborigines was imminent and inevitable. Prichard's novel is the startingpoint of an investigation into the social, economic and politicalbackground of the North-West region during the first sixty yearsof white settlement. The task of this thesis is to 'recover' the wider historical situation by reference to documents.journals, memoirs and newspapersof the period. iv Declaration I certifythat this thesis doesnot incorporatewithout acknowledgement any material previouslysubmitted fora degreeor diploma in any institution of higher education; and that to the bestof my knowledge and beliefit doesnot contain any material previouslypublished or written by another person except wheredue referenceis made in the text. V Acknowledgements The author wishes to thank all those personswho have assisted in the preparationof this thesis. Theseinclude the Librarians and InformationOfficers of the following Institutions and GovernmentDepartments: Battye Librnry Edith Cowan University Library New Idea Magazine Public Records Office Department of Aboriginal Affairs Departmentof Land Administration Health Departmentof Western Australia Thanks arealso extended to the followingindividuals: Mr Ric Throssell for informationand permissionto quote from letter NLA MS 1174/1/2856- 7 of the Palmer Papers Dr Richard J Maguirefor information relating to Turee Station. I am especiallygrateful to my Supervisor, Dr Richard Rossiter, forthe help and encouragement he has given at every stage in the production of this thesis. It is trueto say, that without Dr Rossiter's unfailing support thisthesis would never have reached completion. vi Maps Page Departmentof Land Administration Map 15 adapted to locatethe boundaries of the North-WestStatistical District in 1923-4 Map of Traditional Aboriginal Societies 95 vii CONTENTS Page Abstract )1 Declaration iv Acknowledgements V List of Maps vi Chapter I. Introduction: A New Historicist Approach to Coonardoo. 1 2. Construction of 'Place': The North-West Region 8 3. Pastoral Industry 41 4. Aberiginal Society 87 5. Gold Mining and the Pearling Industry 132 6. Conclusion 172 Bibliography 177 Appendix I 189 Appendix 2 193 Appendix 3 194 CHAPTERI INTRODUCTION A New BistorldstApproach toCoonardoo This work undertakesa new historicist explorationof Katharine Susannah Prichard's novel, Coonardoo( 1929). In particularit scrutinisesthe author's constructionof the novel's settingin the North-Westregion of WesternAustralia during the periodmid- 1860sto late 1920s. The task of this thesis is the identification and explication of textual events and situations which areconstituted by, and are constitutive of, the wider historical context. At the outsetit should benoted that this thesis doesnot undertake a literarycritical appraisal of the novel but performsa descriptive and evaluative reading of the text in relation to the historical background. For example, although a psychoanalytical exploration of the hero's treatmentof the novel's heroine, Coonardoo, based on textual evidence offeredan interestingline of investigation, this exploration had to be rejected in favourof a detailed account of the historical situation in which such rejectionswere frequentlythe fate of Aboriginalconcubines. A new historicist reading of Coonardoois not inappropriate in view of the author's claim to the authenticity of the novel's subject matter. In the 1929 'Foreword to first edition' (referredto as 'Introduction'in the bodyof this work), Prichardstated that: 'Facts, characters, incidents have beencollected, related and interwoven. That is all'. (Prichard, 1929, p. v). Prichard made much of her first-hand experienceof the environmentsand industries which wereportrayed in her fiction. In her autobiography, Childof theHurricane (1963), she recalledthat she had visited the timberlandsof the south-west beforecommencing on WorkingBullocks ( 1926); that she hadtravelled with Wirth'scircus before commencing on Haxby'sCircus ( 1930); and that her visit to a cattle station in the North-Westin 1926 had been the startingpoint of Coonardoo. (Prichard, 1963, p. 254). In a letter to Henrietta Drake-Brockman,Prichard acknowledged that her fiction was intended to be both factualand informative. She wrote: 'My work has been, chiefly, I think, knowing the Australian peopleand interpretingthem to themselves'. (Drake­ Brockman,1953, p. 214). In her essay, 'Some perceptionsand aspirations' (1968), Prichard emphasised the realist nature of her fiction when she wrote: The specificcontribution Australian writers can make to world literature is an Australian view of places, people,traditions and customs, manners and ideas, in all their variations.... I have tried to bedirect, graphic and clear-sighted in my telling of the way men and women live and work in the forests, back country and cities of Australia. (Prichard, 1968, p. 244). Thus, Prichard made a specific claim to social realism in her fiction. Bue this thesis will show that this was not a straightforward task and that, particularly in relation to the construction of Coonardoo, the author was constrained by a number of conditions emanating from the material conditions of the time. For example, ideological beliefs coloured her portrayal of the Aborigines, and social and political factors restrained her uninhibited documentingof the working relations betweenpastoralists and Aboriginal station hands. Prichard's own situation is discussed in relation to the production of Coonardoo. Particularreference is