Politics, Patronage and Public Works: Administration in New South Wales
Australian History Antiquarian & Collectible Colonial History Political History Public Administration Infrastructure History Government Studies
Politics, Patronage and Public Works: Administration in New South Wales is the definitive 2005 hardcover study of how roads, railways, schools and hospitals got built—or didn’t—in Australia’s oldest and once most politically raucous colony. Historian Hilary Golder mines NSW’s spectacularly detailed colonial archives to show that every bridge and schoolhouse was the product of fierce electoral bargaining, shifting ministerial favouritism and a sprawling public-works machine that pre-dated modern party politics. The result is a 268-page, fully illustrated narrative that turns what could have been dry bureaucratic history into a gripping true story of ambition, pork-barrelling and the birth of an Australian public service.
Collectors prize this UNSW Press first edition for its rarity in hardcover; copies in clean, tight condition with no internal markings are becoming harder to find on the secondary market. The book’s value is further lifted by its cross-over appeal: urban planners and engineers discover the engineering decisions behind still-standing sandstone post offices and wrought-iron viaducts, while genealogists use its patronage lists to trace ancestors who worked on the roads or sat in the Legislative Assembly. Because Golder balances scholarly rigour with vivid portraits of colonial premiers and their constituents, the title sits comfortably on both the antiquarian shelf and the modern politics or economics section.
For readers frustrated by today’s debates over infrastructure cost overruns or pork-barrel grants, this volume offers the long view: a meticulously documented demonstration that “roads and rail for votes” is not a modern invention but a 150-year-old tradition. Young adults studying Australian history or politics will find a clear roadmap of how colonial institutions evolved into today’s state government departments, while adult collectors gain a handsome, cloth-bound reference that sparks conversation whenever someone asks why that 1890s sandstone courthouse still dominates the main street.
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