Australia’s Detention Centres on Manus Island and Nauru: An End of Constructive Pacific Engagement?

The ‘Pacific Solution’ of transporting asylum seekers who arrive by boat in Australian waters to detention centres on Nauru and on Manus Island in Papua New Guinea (PNG) has attracted considerable international attention. Most of this has focused on the treatment of those detained and the morality, practicality and sustainability of Australian refugee policy. In this issue of ‘Pacific Currents’, we focus on the consequences for the Island nations. This article sets the scene for articles on Nauru and Manus Island by: 1. outlining the policy debates that led to the two phases of the ‘Pacific Solution’; 2. assembling data covering the numbers and costs involved; and 3. exploring the policy options in the wake of the PNG Supreme Court’s April 2016 ruling that the Manus Island centre was in violation of the constitution. All three papers are particularly concerned to explore the domestic political and legal ramifications of the centres for Nauru and PNG, and to examine the impact on Australia’s reputation in the Pacific region.     

The European Alps – an exceptional range of mountains? Braudel’s argument put to the test

In his classic work about the Mediterranean in the period of Philipp II, French historian Fernand Braudel designates the European Alps an ‘exceptional range of mountains’ and offers several reasons therefor. In contrast to other parts of Braudel’s work, this argument has gone largely unnoticed in scholarship. This article intends to put it to the test in light of recent publications on the Alps. The first two sections give an outline of Braudel’s dealings with mountain regions and of historical research on the Alps from the 1970s onwards. The third section comments on the suitability of Braudel’s criteria for empirical assessments in a comparative perspective. In the conclusions it is argued that Braudel’s general intuition is still valid to some degree. It is less certain, however, that all the criteria are pertinent. More importantly, the findings emphasize the fact that the history of the Alps cannot be studied without paying close attention to their links with the surrounding lowlands. Thus the question of alpine exceptionality raises the question of the special trajectory of these lowland regions within the larger history of Europe.     

Housekeeper,correspondent and confidante: the under-told story of Mrs Hayes of Charlecote Park, 1744–73

All too often, servants are accorded limited space in country house studies: rarely allowed to venture beyond the kitchen and service rooms, either in academic studies or interpretations for visitors. They are defined by their work not their lives and are seen as serving the physical rather than social or emotional needs of the owner. This paper challenges this viewpoint by exploring the relationship between George Lucy, owner of Charlecote Park in Warwickshire and his housekeeper, Mrs Phillipa Hayes. Drawing on their mutual correspondence, on other letters to and from Mrs Hayes, and on her Household Book, I construct a richer and more nuanced picture of the multiple roles that could be played by a senior servant. She was a housekeeper, but also a correspondent, confidante and hostess, who offered comfort and pleasure to her employer as well as sound economic and social management of his household. Although in some ways unusual, this case study illustrates the importance of placing senior servants more centrally when exploring the country house.