ABSTRACT

Harry Lourandos argued that the construction of channel system extended the range of the eels and facilitated a harvest that exceeded local needs: the 'overflow' of eels was a valuable trading commodity that was ecologically sustainable and built a regional economy. Dawson's anecdote is a story about the creation and organisation of social relations across a region. Like the Wakefield-inspired South Australians, Alfred Arden looked forward to the development of villages supported by hinterlands of smallholdings. Writing of 'the dying town syndrome,' Monica Keneley has found that the experience of urban centres in the Western District points to an evolutionary process in the development of small towns. The European Union's Culture for Cities and Regions report notes, the societal value of cultural infrastructure is best realised when it promotes 'heritage-based participatory processes in cities and regions, thus promoting new models of multi-stakeholder governance.'