Geography Reference
In-Depth Information
or shawl but rather large and coarsely-woven to be a handkerchief, we think that it may have
been intended as a bandana or small scarf.
A map of Australia and New Zealand forms the heart of the design but covers a relatively
small proportion of the cloth. A series of eight vignettes (alternately depicting ships and land-
marks) surround and almost overwhelm the central map. The border, which features a pattern
of acorns and oak leaves surrounded by a life-size tape-measure, offers a colourful contrast to
the rest of the design. Although the oak leaf, which is traditionally associated with England,
seems a surprising choice for a Scottish designer, this type of pattern was in keeping with
the taste of the period. Judging by other fabric designs registered in the mid-1870s, flowers,
leaves and geometric patterns, often in the deep or bold colours of recently-invented synthet-
ic dyes, were very popular. Although the fabric has perished in a couple of places, the deep,
blue-purple colour has faded very little, if at all, over the decades.
In the second half of the nineteenth century, Australia was divided into several separate
British colonies. As the map indicates, the bulk of European settlement on the continent was
concentrated near the coasts, particularly in the south and east, a pattern that persists today.
Melbourne, the capital of Victoria colony, had grown rapidly during a gold rush in the 1850s
and 1860s to become Australia's largest and wealthiest city. All four of the landmark vign-
ettes represent buildings or open spaces in Melbourne: the Town Hall, the Post Office, Fitzroy
Gardens and the busy thoroughfare of Bourke Street. After the various colonies were united
in 1901, Melbourne served as the interim seat of the Australian federal government until 1927
when the planned city of Canberra was ready to take up its role as the permanent capital.
The four ships incorporated into the design remind us both of the importance of maritime
trade to the British Empire and of the fact that the Australasian colonies were founded on
migration by sea. Hundreds of thousands of British and Irish people settled in Australia and
New Zealand during the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, encouraged and sometimes
subsidised by the government. Fletcher & Co may have created this design for the export
market, perhaps as a means for the prosperous citizens of Melbourne to express pride in the
new land and new lives that they had chosen. It would have been equally suitable for sale in
the United Kingdom, prompting those in the mother country to recall relatives or friends on
the other side of the world.
