Blue lake : finding Dudley Flats and the West Melbourne swamp
Sornig, David, 1969-2018
Book
In this book, David Sornig examines how the 8km-square zone to the west of central Melbourne became the city's blind spot. Once a fertile wetland with a large blue saltwater lagoon, it passed through various incarnations- from boneyards and rubbish tips; through the Depression-era Dudley Flats shanty town; to the modern-day docks. Through it all, one thing that has persisted is its uncanny, liminal quality. As well as being a social history and a psychogeographic contemplation, this book is a biography of three specific characters- Elsie Williams, a Bendigo-born singer of Afro-Caribbean origin; Jack Peacock, the king of Dudley Flats' tip-scavenging economy; and Lauder Heinrich Rogge, a German hermit who lived for decades with sixty dogs on a stranded ship. By charting the rises and falls in their individual fortunes, Sornig reveals much about the race and class divides of their times and explores questions about those strange and singular places in the urban fabric where chaos is difficult to contain. In masterful prose, Sornig reveals cracks in the colonial mythology of the ordered vision of progressive, urban Melbourne - a place where identities, both personal and public, have never quite been resolved. In doing so, he encourages readers to look harder at the places they live in - at the streets they walk, the buildings they enter, the empty spaces they pass - and to see in them intricate layers of time and history that have been hidden from view.
Main title:
Blue lake : finding Dudley Flats and the West Melbourne swamp / David Sornig.
Author:
Sornig, David, 1969-, author
Imprint:
Brunswick, Victoria : Scribe Publications, 2018.©2018
Collation:
392 pages : illustrations, map ; 24 cm
Notes:
Includes bibliographical references
ISBN:
97819253227439781925322743 (paperback)
Dewey class:
994.51
Language:
English
Subject:
BRN:
511111
| Location | Collection | Call number | Status/Desc |
|---|---|---|---|
| East Melbourne Library | Local History Non Fiction | LH 994.51 SORN | Available |
| Kathleen Syme Carlton | Local History Non Fiction | LH 994.51 SORN | Available |
| Kathleen Syme Carlton | Local History Non Fiction | LH 994.51 SORN | On loan - Due: 23 Jun 2026 |
| Library at the Dock | Local History Reference | LH REF 994.51 SORN | Not for loan (Set: 13 Sep 2018) |
| narrm ngarrgu Library and Family Services | -History | HISTORY 994.51 SORN | Available |
| narrm ngarrgu Library and Family Services | Local History Non Fiction | LH 994.51 SORN | Available |
| North Melbourne Library | Local History Reference | LH REF 994.51 SORN | Not for loan (Set: 13 Sep 2018) |
| Southbank Library | Local History Non Fiction | LH 994.51 SORN | On loan - Due: 05 Jul 2026 |