{"product_id":"2026100008813-secondhand-port-phillip-gentlemen-and-good-society-in-melbourne-before-the-gold-rushes","title":"Port Phillip Gentlemen: And Good Society In Melbourne Before The Gold Rushes","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eCondition remarks:\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003eBook: Good\u003cbr\u003eJacket: Worn\/faded, no tears\u003cbr\u003ePages: Good\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eBefore the gold rush transformed Melbourne into a boomtown of fortune-seekers and frontier chaos, a remarkably refined society had already taken root on the shores of Port Phillip Bay — and Paul de Serville's Port Phillip Gentlemen chronicles its rise with meticulous and compelling detail. Set in the pre-1850s settlement of what would become Victoria, the work presents the pastoralists, merchants, and colonial administrators who fashioned a genteel social order in the antipodean wilderness, navigating questions of class, respectability, and civility far from their British homeland.\n\nDe Serville writes with the precision of a historian and the eye of a social portraitist, drawing on primary sources to reconstruct the rituals, rivalries, and ambitions that defined Melbourne's founding elite. The work stands as a significant contribution to Australian colonial history, illuminating how transplanted English ideals of good society were both preserved and transformed under the pressures of a new land. For anyone curious about the sophisticated world that existed before the gold rushes swept it all away, this is an indispensable and richly rewarding read.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Secondhand Stock","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":49336811618523,"sku":"2026100008813-SECONDHAND","price":25.0,"currency_code":"AUD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0523\/7646\/9701\/files\/0998ee5b-6614-446a-82f3-ea5aa85db1cc.png?v=1789958417","url":"https:\/\/bookgrocer.com\/products\/2026100008813-secondhand-port-phillip-gentlemen-and-good-society-in-melbourne-before-the-gold-rushes","provider":"Book Grocer","version":"1.0","type":"link"}