G. Waitt et Pm. Mcguirk, SELLING WATERFRONT HERITAGE - A CRITIQUE OF MILLERS-POINT, SYDNEY, Tijdschrift voor economische en sociale geografie, 88(4), 1997, pp. 342-352
This article explores the assimilation of a Sydney waterfront precinct
, Millers Point, into the cultural tourism industry. Heritage tourism
offers a potential economic base to revitalise an area whose nineteent
h-century wharves and port infrastructure have become redundant. The s
election of Millers Point over other places occurred through the prese
nce of artefacts dating from the nation's early European history. Mark
ing tourist sites in Millers Point as part of a Bicentenary Project of
the Royal Australian Historical Society (RAHS) inhered to this locali
ty imaginings of Australian national identity. Within the rhetoric of
'cradle of the nation', aspects of this officially sanctioned locality
that threaten the national imaginings were either suppressed, trivial
ised or silenced. Furthermore, these claims of national identity are a
ppropriated, communicated and amplified within representations of the
tourism industry's brochures and guidebooks. Representations of nation
al identity within Millers Point privilege official over vernacular hi
stories. Furthermore artefacts are prioritised over social memory, in
particular first and oldest structures over all others. Finally where
social memory is addressed, emphasis is given to the elite over the pr
oletariat, men over women, Anglo-Celtic over indigenous peoples, glori
ous decisions over the ignoble, and an egalitarian ideology over extan
t social relationships. Such a selective representation of Millers Poi
nt allows conflictual and challenging elements of Australian national
identity to be cast aside, leaving dominant social norms unchallenged.