Cirrus@Austlit

'This article focuses on "The Planter of Malata", the first of four tales from Joseph Conrad's 1915 collection of short fiction, Within the Tides. Despite the weight of scholarship devoted to Conrad, this Australian-set story has yet to receive much, comparatively speaking, in the way of critical investigation. Conrad's story is, I argue, of interest to cultural historians and literary critics alike. After briefly placing it in the context of Conrad's personal contact with Australia during his sea years, I consider the story against a broader debate then taking place, concerning the political vision of a 'White Australia'. I explore how Conrad's story is attentive to an historical shift in European perceptions of Australia, from being regarded as inimical to European settlement during its early phases, to attempts during the late-nineteenth and early-twentieth century to cultivate Australia as a space solely for whites, as adumbrated in the 'White Australia' legislation that followed Federation in 1901. Although generally dismissed as a dry-run for Conrad's 1915 novel Victory, and judged a critical failure by the standards set by his earlier fiction, in terms of the historical issues to which it is attuned "The Planter of Malata" stands on its own as a work of considerable richness (Author's abstract).