Description
The Antipodean Laboratory offers a sophisticated analysis of how scientific knowledge was created, contested, and circulated in colonial Australia. Anna Johnston traces the development of natural history practices across the century from European contact through the establishment of settled colonies, demonstrating how Australia became a vital site for generating knowledge about the natural world.
Rather than viewing colonial science as merely imported from Europe, Johnston reveals how local practices, Indigenous knowledge systems, and the unique Australian environment fundamentally shaped scientific inquiry. She examines the networks of collectors, naturalists, and institutions that transformed colonial settlements into laboratories of discovery. This work challenges conventional histories of science by centering the antipodes, showing how colonial knowledge production was reciprocal and transformative rather than unidirectional.
Essential reading for historians of science, colonialism, and the British Empire, this book illuminates the complex relationships between knowledge, power, and place in the colonial world.
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