“A vast field in itself”: Acclimatisation, Phrenology and Salvage Ethnography in the Goldfields Mechanics’ Institutes

Abstract

This article investigates the dual project of colonial improvement and settlement shaping the identity and purpose of Victorian goldfields mechanics’ institutes in their pursuit of colonial knowledge and their participation in networks of imperial science. Focussing on three institutes established during the first decade of the Australian gold rush—the Sandhurst Mechanics’ Institute (SMI, est. 1854), the Beechworth Athenaeum (est. 1856) and the Ballaarat Mechanics’ Institute (BMI, est. 1859)—this article examines the institutes’ support of acclimatisation societies and their interest in developing local natural histories; their fascination with and encouragement of debates surrounding phrenology; and their practices of collecting ethnographic material that shaped their involvement with the evolving theories of racial science in the Australian colonies. In studying these social and scientific activities, this article demonstrates how the institutes promoted and embodied a local settler identity and ideology that worked to alleviate the moral and social anxieties accompanying the gold rush. In doing so, this article also reveals the imperial reach of regional literary institutions and elucidates the scholarly benefits of treating these institutes as significant participatory nodes in imperial networks as we shift our focus from traditional metropole-colony exchanges.