ABSTRACT
During the first half of the nineteenth century, the interplay of central-local administrative relations was a crucial element in the appropriation of space in the industrialising urban centres of Britain. The Rawlinson Report had been set in motion by a petition forwarded to the General Board of Health from the ratepayers of three wards, none of which were either covered by a local Act or represented by a board of Improvement Commissioners. Rawlinson's inquiry into the sanitary conditions on Portsea Island served to highlight the inadequacy of local boards of Improvement Commissioners in eradicating dirt and disease in many of the poorer areas. The overwhelming presence of the state on Portsea Island through its military and naval bases had a quite obvious effect on attitudes towards what was perceived as increased government intervention. The issue of health and sanitation should not be accepted as an automatically perceived 'problem' of urbanisation and, therefore, as an inevitable aspect of local administrative control.
