ABSTRACT
This chapter explores the story of the rise and fall of Australian economic history from its foundation at the hands of the State Statistician a period of global expansion and self-sustained growth, through to its parlous state of decline. It examines intellectual preoccupations and methodological approaches, and commits a heinous sin of simplification by imposing a coherent story on what is a particularly disparate set of scholarly works. The chapter focuses on the economic history of Australia which was the principal, but not sole, area studied by those employed as economic historians. It argues that Australia offers a strong tradition of empirical work supported by the state provision of official statistics; and that Australian economic historians were early adopters of new approaches. The chapter concludes that the tyranny of distance– while protecting and nurturing an infant industry in economic history aimed at the domestic market – left the discipline largely marginal from the international mainstream.
