Land Use in Australia: Rouse Hill House and Farm and the Struggle between Tradition and Modernity

Abstract

This paper examines the patterns of land use in Australia, tracing the transition from pre-European settlement through to the twenty first century. A critical examination of the concepts of modernism and tradition reveals the shifting prevalence of these movements throughout history, and the resulting struggle between them. By focusing on the area which formerly comprised Rouse Hill Farm in Sydney’s northwest, this paper reveals the factors which drove European progress and which now challenge this notion.