Anglo-Celtic Australia: Colonial Immigration and Cultural Regionalism

by Alyson L. Greiner, Terry G. Jordan-Bychkov

For years the prevailing view among scholars has been that postcolonial Australia is "an undifferentiated composite of Anglo-Celtic culture," in which English, Irish, Welsh, and Scottish components quickly fused into a singular culture. But based on extensive field research, this study questions that view: the authors' compilation of data from 13,271 tombstones revealing the birth place of the interred, from 565 graveyards throughout Australia, shows "point-to-point and shire-to-shire migration from the British Isles to Australia." As a result, they also uncover Australia's distinct regional clusters of specific groups from the British Isles—and the differences of religion, dialect, urbanization, and agriculture that accompany them.

208 pages, Hardcover

First published October 1, 2002