The Urban Sprinkle: Country Towns and Australian Regional History

Weston Bate (1924–2017)

“…7 He continued to champion the importance of geography in regional history, and in 1978 became foundation Professor of Australian Studies at Deakin University, until his retirement in 1989. 8 If Brighton was a 'style-setter' for Australian urban historians, Lucky City: The First Generation at Ballarat, 1851-1901 (1978), in its challenge to the centralising tendencies of dominant historical narratives, broadened his status nationally, however much he remained a staunch Victorian patriot. 9 In an era when the ambition of urban social history was still partly derided as lacking focus and being servile to more important political economy approaches, even some of the sceptics were impressed with how Lucky City could 'make details talk'.…”