Q & A: Professor Geoffrey Bolton

It's not often you get the chance to have a coffee with one Western Australia’s most celebrated historians. In 1954, Professor Geoffrey Bolton completed his masters thesis in history at the University of Western Australia. This year I am working on my own and I'm keen to hear about his experiences. When he meets me at a university cafe, he has just come from the library where he has been researching his latest book.

During our chat, Bolton expresses an infectious enthusiasm when describing the thrill of finding ways back into the past using archives and oral histories. It is this challenge, I think, that has sustained him throughout a dynamic career that has included numerous books and academic papers as well as teaching and leadership in public history. Through his arresting and accessible prose, Bolton has helped uncover countless hidden Australian histories.

How did you get started in history?
The right kind of teacher at the right time is important. Professor Fred Alexander (the founding Head of the Department of History at UWA) was quite influential. We were both fascinated by the opening up of the American west. When I commenced by masters, he found 100 pounds from somewhere - told me not to ask for a penny more - and sent me up north to write a history of the Kimberley pastoral industry. At the time it was very isolated and it was an incredible experience. When I finished the thesis I got a Hackett scholarship to Oxford University. I wanted to shift because Australian history is good and there is a lot to do, but it is important to have a global perspective. So all of that went into developing a historical imagination.

How do you work?
I was taught that you have to get hold of the evidence, get hold of the documents. Also, because of the work I had been doing in the Kimberly, I needed to come to grips with oral history early on. I’ve always thought oral history was a useful way to access the past. The thing about oral history is that often it concerns feelings and emotions about something rather than facts. People make mistakes about facts, but that doesn’t mean you have to discount what they are talking about. It’s a way in. For example, when I wrote ‘A Fine Country to Starve In’ we did lots of interviews. What we found was that, for people who had a hard time, the wives wanted to talk the ways they had managed, innovated and economized however the men didn’t want to talk about it as they were ashamed.

A certain level of empathy is central to good history. I remember seeing a colleague and noticing he was looking unusually haggard. I asked him why and he said it was because of a history he was writing about a notorious employer in the early coal industry. He said;

“Geoff, I’ve been trying for the last fortnight to put myself in his shoes. I’m not going to change my views but until I understand what made the bastard tick I’m not going to write anything worthwhile!”

What are your thoughts about Australian history writing in the 21st century?
I think people often look at history as a series of milestones rather than a process of continuity. For example, the 1988 Bicentennial and the 2015 Anzac Centenary. We need to be careful of that. If you limit focus to the big moments, people can slip out of immediate memory and things get lost in between. Someone who is 100 years old has a valuable story to tell, however so does someone who is 50 years old. We shouldn't wait until it becomes urgent to preserve these stories.

I can now see, what I couldn’t see when I was writing history 50 years ago, how memory places an increasingly important role in society. People are constructing myths 50 years later. Sometimes it wasn’t like that.

People like Marilyn Lake and Henry Reynolds have talked about the Anzac legend and militarization of Australian history but you need to remember that people are fascinated by it. When I taught European history the French Revolution and Hitler's Germany were always most popular with students as there was such a lot of action.


What drives you as a historian?
It is a lifetime profession. I suppose there is that thing that you just might just make the next project a little better than the others. There is always that challenge. Early on you have models (other historians) that you follow however I always enjoyed it as a form of writing. It is a narrative and it should be directed at the general reader. It’s important to write clearly and lucidly. It’s important to bridge academic and public audiences and the more you do it, the better you get at it.

If anything my writing style has relaxed. Early on in my career I can see examples when I was trying to write with conscious elegance. I don’t necessarily do that now. You’ll never have perfection, the most you can do is avoid deliberate error.

6 events from WA history every child should learn.

Last week British historian Simon Scharma listed 6 events from British history every child should learn and American journalist Michael Tomasky quickly responded with a list of his own. The prospect of distilling the history of a nation into a few key events is daunting but it got me thinking. As a WA history blogger I was inspired to take up the challenge and propose a list of our own.

In keeping with Scharma I wanted to select events that seem particularly relevant to the challenges of our time. Being able to empathise with those in the past is powerful; it is at these moments of 'relatability' that the past is suddenly brought to life.

I also wanted to create a list that might inspire fresh debate and discussion in the classroom. Much of history is about power and while it is impossible to separate history from politics (and if you tried kids could see right through it) - critical thinking can help neutralise this. The point is not to tell kids what to think, but to give them the freedom to think for themselves.

With so many events to choose from where to begin? Perhaps with the advertising campaign that started it all? James Stirling is not generally credited as a PR guru however his promotional campaign for the new colony was so successful that it created 'Swan River Mania' in 1820’s England. The reality for new settlers was very different and in a few short years they were united in a battle for survival. The arrival of convicts in 1850 was another major turning point in our history. They were never part of the plan for this 'genteel' colony - in fact - until the latter half of the 20th century it was common for Western Australians to hide their convict heritage! However without them the future would have been bleak - their labour was used to build many of the first major roads and buildings.

Our isolation had always defined us – even today we are the most isolated capital city in the world. It is revealing that the first settlement in WA was not the Swan River colony in 1829, but a military base at Albany four years prior. Isolation has been a source of pride but also insecurity; perhaps it is from this legacy that sinking of the HMAS Sydney during World War Two resonated so deeply with us then and now.

And what of the current debates surrounding political refugees in WA? Some of the first refugees to arrive on our shores were intellectuals from Central and Eastern Europe fleeing persecution from the Nazis in the 1930s. Their arrival too heralded fiery debate – they looked different, spoke differently and worshiped different religions. Despite facing intolerance they injected new life into the Perth cultural scene founding opera societies, starting modern art movements and introducing new ways of thinking. After considering these events (and many more) I finally arrived at the list below.

6 events every Western Australian child should learn...

1. First Settlement
40,000 – 60,000 years ago
Genetic evidence suggests that all of us are descended from a single group of 10,000 Africans and that humans reached Australia long before they reached Europe - even though Australia is further away from Africa. Indigenous Australians arrived on our north-west coast 40,000 – 60,000 years ago. They possess the world’s oldest continual culture and when faced with today’s environmental challenges there is much they can teach us.

2. European Exploration
Early 17th Century
Rumours of a mythical ‘great south land’ had been circulating Europe for over 2,000 years but despite (or maybe because of) grand expectations - many early visitors were unimpressed. The Dutch of the early 17th century viewed our treacherous waters as an endurance obstacle course on the way to Asia, rather than an attractive destination. The 18th century bought curious French and British explorers who, while happy to visit, were less than enthusiastic about the huge job of setting up a colony and living here! It was the threat that the French might colonise WA that finally prompted Britain to establish a settlement in Albany, then Perth.

3. Yagan’s Peace Talks
1833
When the first settlers arrived at the Swan River they encounted a complex Noongar society. Initial relations were peaceful however miscommunication and battles over scarce resources soon resulted in violent conflicts between settlers and indigenous Australians. During his lifetime, Yagan was not only a respected Aboriginal resistance leader and patriot - but arguably the colony’s first celebrity. In 1833 the Perth Gazette newspaper likened him to a European ressistance hero, reporting that Yagan was ‘now generally known as ‘The (William) Wallace’ . Despite being a wanted man, Yagan met with Lieutenant Governor Frederick Irwin in 1933 and negotiated a short-lived peace between the Noongar and European settlers. In the past, controversy surrounding Yagan’s death has tragically overshadowed his leadership and achievements.

4. Our first mining boom
1890’s
While the nature of any economic ‘boom’ is short-term they can have lasting legacies - our first mining boom changed us forever. The Gold Rush of the 1890’s brought thousands of immigrants from overseas and the Eastern states – in a few short years our population increased by 400%! Individual fortunes were won and lost but the effects can still be seen over 100 years later – not only did it lead to the creation of much needed railways, roads and telegraph communications, it also resulted in new art galleries, zoological gardens, grand hotels and theatres. The boom also saw one of the greatest global engineering feats of its time – C. Y. O’Connor’s ‘golden pipeline’ pushed technology to its limits to provide water to the Kalgoorlie goldfields.

5. Federation
1901
It’s time to look at federation differently. Far from being dull and boring, this event defined us unlike any another. While we joke about secession, it was by no means inevitable that WA would ever join the Commonwealth. The federation debate also indirectly led to WA being a leader in women's rights! We were one of the first places in the world to give women the vote in 1899 - women in Britain and USA waited another 20 years (1918 and 1920 respectively). Though we had an innovative suffragette movement, it was no coincidence the vote was awarded just before the federation referendum. Women were viewed as a conservative influence and less likely to want to join the commonwealth. However - in the end the huge influx of immigrants from the mining boom (especially those from the eastern states) led to a yes vote for federation.

6. The end of World War One
1918
Despite technology allowing us to connect with the world in new and innovative ways, it is easy for us today to feel detached from the reality of war. While the rest of the world commemorates World War One on the day it ended (Armistice Day), we are unique in Australia as we also commemorate Anzac Day – the day we first went into battle. Over 10% of WA's population enlisted to fight in WW1 and the conflict left no family untouched. The end of the war brought joy and optimism however many who returned found it difficult to adjust back to civilian life. Looking back today the causes of this conflict seem heartbreakingly complex however attempts to understand the effects of any war cannot succeed without first learning why we were there.