Creating Heterotopia out of Place: 18th- and 19th-century Australia

This paper focuses on Michel Foucault’s essay Of Other Spaces: Utopias and Heterotopias, and applies the concept of heterotopias, introduced in his essay, to early Australian society. By doing so, the paper aims to prove the existence of heterotopic sites in early Australian society. Since heterotopic sites are essentially cultural constructs (“counter-sites”), the paper also examines the prerequisites that enabled the creation of heterotopias. That is, the paper examines the conceptual transition that Australia underwent – from a conceptual space to a place, and from a place to a heterotopic site. By using various sources of information and taking into consideration both colonial and post-colonial perception of early Australian society, the paper also shows that Australia embodied virtually every aspect of Foucault’s philosophy, which means that it represented a whole range of heterotopias: a heterotopia of both deviation and crisis, a heterotopic site that juxtaposed incompatible sites that also changed their functions, a heterotopia of indefinitely accumulating time, a heterotopia of temporariness, a system of opening and closing, and finally a heterotopia of both illusion and compensation. Furthermore, these heterotopic sites are divided into those noticeable on a micro-level (e.g. Parramatta Female Factory), and those noticeable on a macro-level (the whole continent)