AUSTRALIA’S FERTILITY TRANSITION A STUDY OF 19TH-CENTURY TASMANIA AUSTRALIA’S FERTILITY TRANSITION A STUDY OF 19TH-CENTURY TASMANIA HELEN MOYLE Published by ANU Press The Australian National University Acton ACT 2601, Australia Email:
[email protected] Available to download for free at press.anu.edu.au ISBN (print): 9781760463366 ISBN (online): 9781760463373 WorldCat (print): 1137826491 WorldCat (online): 1137860712 DOI: 10.22459/AFT.2020 This title is published under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial- NoDerivatives 4.0 International (CC BY-NC-ND 4.0). The full licence terms are available at creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/legalcode This publication was awarded a College of Arts and Social Sciences PhD Publication Prize in 2019. The prize contributes to the cost of professional copyediting. Cover design and layout by ANU Press. Cover photograph: NS5098/1/88, ‘Woman with two children and an infant sitting outside’, Tasmanian Archives. This edition © 2020 ANU Press Contents Abbreviations . vii Acknowledgements . ix List of figures . xi List of tables . xv 1 . Introduction: Theories of the historical fertility decline . 1 2 . The Australian fertility decline . 27 3 . Tasmania in the 19th and early 20th centuries . 41 4 . Research design and data sources . 63 5 . Characteristics of the Tasmanian marriage cohorts . .. 83 6 . Fertility patterns of the couples in the marriage cohorts . 111 7 . How, when and why did fertility decline? . 145 8 . Why did fertility fall in Tasmania during this period? Qualitative insights . 185 9. Conclusion . 221 Appendix A: Appendix tables . 231 Appendix B: Data sources used for family reconstitution . 253 Appendix C: Local history museums .