ABSTRACT
I recently visited a small country town in Victoria, Australia which is widely known for its retention of the charm and character of the 1880s gold rush period. The main street is lined with mellow sandstone buildings with wide shapely verandahs, and the businesses tastefully recreate this bygone era in the presentation of their wares or trades to the public. Yet a wander down the back lane behind this street took me into a very different world. It was evident that many businesses had a well-preserved facade which hid endless variety-modern factory units, extensive workshops, tumbling down or patched sheds coated in dust and grime, and small family homes of any vintage; diversity and incongruities abounded. Clearly the view provided from the horse drawn carriage which took tourists along the main streets was very different from the realities of the lives of the people who lived and worked there. The disjunction between the carefully created homogeneity of the artifice that was the streetscape and the haphazard individuality and uneasy alliances provided by the contrasts glimpsed in the lane was disrupting and fascinating. It clearly portrayed my own contrary feelings as I reflect on the whitewashing practices in which many of us engage to re/present the ethical dilemmas we encounter in critical research. Although as a reflective project I did disclose and discuss many of the problems I encountered at the time, it was not until I revisited the journals kept during the research process that I found a more revealing picture.
