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Dry Zones

Planning and the Hangovers of Liquor Licensing History

  • Using new archival research and historical GIS techniques to book map the rise and influence of local level controls on alcohol in Victoria

  • Offers a new perspective on place-based alcohol controls by arguing that the temperance movement of the late 19th and early 20th century used nascent planning laws to legitimize local popular political power, and the control not only of alcohol but of land use and disorder more broadly

  • Identifies the hangovers of temperance and local option laws: legacies for the emergence of land use zoning, and for alcohol and land use controls in Victoria today

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Table of contents (7 chapters)

  1. Front Matter

    Pages i-xi
  2. Introduction: Walter’s Hotel, 1882

    • Elizabeth Jean Taylor
    Pages 1-9
  3. The Old England Hotel, 1922: Hangovers

    • Elizabeth Jean Taylor
    Pages 75-109
  4. The Highland Society: Hair of the Dog

    • Elizabeth Jean Taylor
    Pages 111-137
  5. Epilogue: “HAPPY NYE, 1984”

    • Elizabeth Jean Taylor
    Pages 139-143
  6. Appendices

    • Elizabeth Jean Taylor
    Pages 145-162

About this book

This book tells the story of local-level controls on liquor licensing (‘local option’) that emerged during the anti-alcohol temperance movement of the late 19th and early 20th centuries. It offers a new perspective on these often-overlooked smaller prohibitions, arguing local option not only reshaped the hotel industry but has legacies for, and parallels with, questions facing cities and planners today. These range from idiosyncratic dry areas; to intrinsic ideas of residential amenity and neighbourhood, zoning separation, and objection rights. 


The book is based on a case study of temperance-era liquor licensing changes in Victoria, their convergence with early planning, and their continuities. Examples are given of contemporary Australian planning debates with historical roots in the temperance era – live music venues, bottle shops, gaming machines, fast food restaurants. Dry Zones uses new archival research and maps; and includes examples from family histories in Harcourt and Barkers Creek, a district with a temperance reputation and which closed all its hotels during the temperance era. 


Suggesting ‘wowsers’ are not so easily relegated to history books, Taylor reflects on tensions around individual and local rights, localism and centralism, direct democracy, and domestic violence, that continue to be re-enacted. Dry Zones visits a forgotten by-way of licensing history, showing the early 21st century is a useful time to reflect on this history as while some temperance-era controls are being scaled back, similar controls are being put forward for much the same reasons.

Reviews

“Elizabeth Taylor’s Dry Zones: Planning and the Hangovers of Liquor Licensing History is thoroughly researched and well-balanced, and is the most complete description and explanation of the evolution of Melbourne’s liquor licensing written to date.” (David Merrett, University of Melbourne, Australia)

Authors and Affiliations

  • Centre for Urban Research, Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology (RMIT), Melbourne, Australia

    Elizabeth Jean Taylor

About the author

Elizabeth Jean Taylor is a Research Fellow in the Centre for Urban Research at RMIT University, Australia.

Bibliographic Information

  • Book Title: Dry Zones

  • Book Subtitle: Planning and the Hangovers of Liquor Licensing History

  • Authors: Elizabeth Jean Taylor

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-13-2787-2

  • Publisher: Palgrave Pivot Singapore

  • eBook Packages: Social Sciences, Social Sciences (R0)

  • Copyright Information: The Editor(s) (if applicable) and The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Singapore Pte Ltd., part of Springer Nature 2019

  • Hardcover ISBN: 978-981-13-2786-5Published: 20 October 2018

  • eBook ISBN: 978-981-13-2787-2Published: 10 October 2018

  • Edition Number: 1

  • Number of Pages: XI, 162

  • Number of Illustrations: 6 b/w illustrations

  • Topics: Human Geography, Urban Studies/Sociology, Australasian History

Buy it now

Buying options

eBook USD 44.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as EPUB and PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
Hardcover Book USD 59.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Durable hardcover edition
  • Dispatched in 3 to 5 business days
  • Free shipping worldwide - see info

Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout

Other ways to access