“In the Pursuit of Colonial Intelligence”

The 'pursuit of colonial intelligence', in James Bonwick's phrase, assumed growing importance for Australians as the nineteenth century moved into the twentieth century. In the period known as the Belle Époque in Europe, Australians eagerly sought international intelligence in the form of official documents and scientific and literary publications from local as well as international sources. This chapter focuses on the aspect of information in particular, addressing the specific interest of Australian individuals, institutions, and colonial governments in the printed sources needed by the newly evolving empirical and 'scientific' historical method. The chapter now addresses a discrete aspect of information acquisition in the Australian colonies, specifically the emergence of a new interest in accessing material for the production of written histories about the British colonial enterprise in Australasia. In the period of the Belle Époque, redemptive, scientific, and nationalizing history was increasingly the currency of historical consciousness across the western world.