The Politics of the Visual: Immigrant Architecture in Melbourne’s Tourist Brochures

Abstract

This paper investigates “immigrant architecture”Footnote1 in Australia and argues that the reception of the “architecture of the other” is mediated by the visual appearance of this architecture. The paper investigates the politics of multiculturalism and migration in Melbourne, Australia, and more specifically its representation in Melbourne's tourist brochures. We argue that tourist brochures portray the image of the city to both national and international audience, and that the decisions around which architecture to include (and exclude) correspond with that image, and are hierarchical.The inclusion and exclusion of Melbourne’s architecture in selected tourist brochures are central to this paper, juxtaposing the reality and diversity of Melbourne’s architecture, to the selection of architecture which is represented in the brochures. This corresponds with the collision of two different images of Australia as a nation, the first being the image of Australian as hegemonic and related to white, Anglo-Celtic culture, and the second as image of Australian culture as multicultural, diverse and in flux. The paper proposes that mainstream tourist brochures rely on out-dated colonial-settler narratives and selectively represent the contributions of Indigenous and minority ethnic immigrants to Australian society.