Water Power in a Dry Continent: The Transfer of Waterrnill Technology from Britain to Australia in the Nineteenth Century

Abstract

This paperpresents the results ofresearch for a Doctorate undertakenfrom 1991 to 1995, in the Department ofArchaeology and Palaeoanthropology at the University ofNew England, Armidale, NSW The aim of the research was to construct a model for the transfer and adaptation of industrial technology from Britain to Australia in the nineteenth century. The paper considers what factors were important for the process of international technology transfer. This leads to hypotheses about how it should have been adapted as a result of its transfer. These are then tested by a comparison of the physical remains of the technology preserved in both countries. A generalised model for the transfer and adaption of industrial technology from Britain to Australia in the nineteenth century is then putforward. In order to construct a model for the transfer and adpation of industrial archaeology between Britain and Australia in the nineteenth century, published research on international technology-transfer, which may be defined as the movement between countries of technological knowledge and/or hardware, was used to identify and define the most important economic, environmental, industrial, human and cultural factors influencing the process. These factors were then used as starting points for a comparison of the two countries, Australia and Britain, between which a given technology, that of watermills, was transferred. From this comparison it was possible to hypothesise about how the technology should have been adapted as a result of its transfer. These hypotheses were tested by a comparison of the physical remains of watermill technology preserved in the West Midlands of England, Tasmania and the New England Tablelands of New South Wales. From this, a generalised model for explaining the adaptation of industrial technology introduced into nineteenth­ century Australia was put forward. This emphasises production inputs and resource endowments in the recipient country as the most influential selection pressures, and defines the relationships of these with other factors, including the presence of skilled operators and supportive industries for the technology in the recipient country and the cultural makeup of both the donor and recipient countries.

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