An Airy Barrier
An Airy Barrier
This chapter illustrates a characteristic strategy of empirical history that suppresses historical accounts of Botany Bay—a strategy that a history of space is bound to resist. Here Botany Bay is a cause that surfaces only as an effect. In the event it inspires, that of possession, the place itself disappears, ceasing to be an object of historical desire. This phenomenon is characteristic of a history that it is linear, that its causes are wholly spent in their immediate effects. No causes are left over to remain a presence in future activity. Thus, Botany Bay is emptied of a future once the First Fleet renders it past. Similarly, Cook is rendered invisible by his own motive power.
Keywords: Australia, Australian history, Botany Bay, spatial history, place names, empirical history
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