An Oasis in the Wilderness

Hailed in the mid-nineteenth century as “an oasis in the wilderness”, the Sydney Mechanics’ School of Arts was founded in 1833 to “diffuse scientific and other useful knowledge” to the skilled workingmen of the fledgling European settlement of Sydney. Established in emulation of the burgeoning mechanics’ movement in Britain, the founders of this school viewed knowledge as a kind of alchemy that had the potential to change the individual and society. Taking the reader on a series of journeys, Dr Lesley Scanlon’s An Oasis in the Wilderness: The Foundation Years of the Sydney Mechanics’ School of Arts (1833–1851) situates the activities of the school during its formative years within the social and intellectual contexts of early nineteenth century Britain and New South Wales. More than just the history of the foundation of the School of Arts, this book provides a window through which the reader glimpses aspects of the social and educational milieu of Britain and Sydney’s early settler society.