SWAN RIVER STORIES

Sue Graham-Taylor, the inaugural James Sykes Battye Memorial Fellow, has recently completed a multimedia website which provides an overview of the environmental, socialand political history of Perth Water – the area of the Swan River approximately from Kigs Park to the Causeway.

The website http://www.slwa.wa.gov.au/swan_river 

profiles library resources and is a useful tool for those interested in the history of Perth water or

as a starting point for further research.

2009 Battye Fellowship

Dr Jane Davis is the winner of the State Library’s second James Sykes Battye Memorial Fellowship. Dr Davis’ project, entitled Longing or Belonging? Finding Home in Colonial Western Australia will challenge widely-held assumptions about settlers and the Australian environment. It will focus on twenty-one colonists who settled in the South West of Western Australia between 1829 and 1907 and the extent to which they developed a sense of home and belonging through their relationships with, and perceptions of, the landscapes they encountered. Making extensive use of materials in the Battye Library, including personal archives, newspapers and other ephemeral materials, this project will argue against the dominant pioneer narrative that portrays colonists as threatened and alienated by a harsh environment, and instead demonstrate that, among a wide variety of responses, some colonist developed strong connections with, and even affection for, their ‘new’ place in Western Australia.