Setting and Historical Context (VCE SSCE English): Revision Notes

Setting and Historical Context

Jane Harrison's Rainbow's End takes place in 1950s rural Victoria, specifically in the fringe camps and emerging housing schemes near Shepparton. The play unfolds during a crucial period in Australian history, when post-war prosperity and the assimilation policy created stark contrasts between white affluence and Aboriginal poverty. By grounding the Dear family's story in this specific time and place, Harrison exposes the systemic racism and false promises of national unity that characterised mid-20th century Australia.

The physical settings in the play are not merely backdrops but active forces that shape the characters' experiences and symbolise broader themes of dispossession, exclusion and resilience.

The Flats: A precarious riverside home

The primary setting of Rainbow's End is an area known as The Flats, a makeshift community of tin humpies located by the river near the Shepparton rubbish tip. This location embodies the poverty and vulnerability faced by Aboriginal families excluded from mainstream Australian society.

Nan Dear's humpy is repeatedly threatened by flooding. She refers to "that bloody river" in Scene 1, expressing frustration at the uncontrollable force that invades her home. Despite the harsh conditions, the family maintains their dwelling with dignity. The humpy is described as "clean and cosy", even though it is patched together with materials scavenged from the dump, including linoleum flooring. This contrast between squalor and family pride is central to understanding the Dear family's resilience.

Symbolic significance: The recurring floods that threaten The Flats serve as a powerful metaphor for the uncontrollable policies imposed by white authorities. Just as the river overflows its banks without warning, government decisions about evictions, missions and welfare controls sweep through Aboriginal communities with devastating effect. The humpy itself becomes a site of resistance and sovereignty, even as characters like Gladys dream of a "proper house" that represents assimilation into white society.

The transition to Rumbalara housing scheme in Scene 7 offers a fragile upgrade. The Dear family moves into a small government-provided house, but the river remains nearby—a reminder that improved housing does not erase deeper inequalities or the threat of continued displacement.

Shepparton and Mooroopna: Twin towns of segregation

The neighbouring towns of Shepparton and Mooroopna represent the white world that Aboriginal characters must navigate with caution and dignity. These rural Victorian towns were experiencing the post-war economic boom of the 1950s, visible through cultural markers like cafés, door-to-door salesmen and radio entertainment. However, this prosperity existed in stark contrast to the conditions at The Flats.

Public exclusion and everyday racism: Throughout the play, Aboriginal characters encounter systematic exclusion in public spaces. In Scene 2, when Queen Elizabeth II visits Shepparton in 1954, Aboriginal residents are blocked from viewing the royal procession by a hessian fence—a portable barrier that literally segregates them from participating in this moment of national celebration. Council meetings ignore Aboriginal pleas for better living conditions, demonstrating how Indigenous voices are systematically silenced in civic decision-making.

The towns are also sites of casual but pervasive racism. When Dolly applies for a bank position, her interview focuses on whether she can "fit in" with white workplace culture rather than her actual qualifications. Leon's experiences in town, particularly at the pub, fuel rage that later explodes into violence. Even routine activities like queuing at the butcher's shop reinforce hierarchy—Nan is always served last, a daily reminder of her second-class status.

Cultural markers of the era: The play references several cultural touchstones that ground it in 1950s Australia. The BP Pick-a-Box radio quiz show, which Gladys wins, represents post-war optimism and the new consumer culture reaching into Australian homes. Travelling salesmen like Errol bring products and promises of modern life, yet these opportunities largely bypass Aboriginal communities. The Miss Shepparton Ball becomes a focal point for dreams of belonging and recognition, particularly for Gladys, yet these dreams ultimately expose the limits of assimilation.

The dual nature of these towns—drawing Aboriginal people in with promises of opportunity whilst simultaneously repelling them through racism—mirrors the bait-and-switch logic of assimilation policy itself.

Historical context: The assimilation era

Rainbow's End is set specifically in 1953–54, a period that sits between two significant moments in Australian Indigenous history: the Cummeragunja Walk-Off of 1939 and the 1967 Referendum that would grant Aboriginal people full citizenship rights. Understanding this historical moment is essential for grasping the pressures and constraints the Dear family faces.

Missions and reserves: Nan Dear carries physical and emotional scars from her time at Cummeragunja Mission, from which she was forcibly displaced during the 1939 Walk-Off. This historical event saw Aboriginal residents staging a mass protest against oppressive conditions including rationing, wages theft and inhumane treatment. Missions and reserves operated as sites of control where government authorities managed nearly every aspect of Aboriginal life, from employment to family structures.

Assimilation policy: During the 1950s, government policy shifted from segregation towards assimilation, which aimed to absorb Aboriginal people into white Australian culture by encouraging them to abandon traditional ways and adopt European customs. This policy is embodied in Gladys's desire for encyclopaedias and a "proper house"—symbols of white middle-class respectability. The Rumbalara housing scheme represents the government's attempt to provide improved housing, but it comes with increased surveillance and control. Programmes like HASL (Housing for Aboriginal Stabilisation Loans) offered advancement opportunities exclusively designed for white notions of progress.

The 1954 Royal Visit: Queen Elizabeth II's visit to Australia in 1954 was celebrated as a moment of national unity and pride. However, the hessian fence erected in Shepparton to block Aboriginal residents from viewing the Queen exposes the hypocrisy of this "welcome." Aboriginal people were hidden away during this moment of national celebration, revealing that the prosperity and unity being celebrated did not extend to Indigenous Australians.

Post-war prosperity gap: The years following World War II brought unprecedented economic growth to white Australia, visible in the play through consumer goods like radios, new clothing and improved housing. Yet this boom entirely bypassed Aboriginal communities, who faced continuing poverty exacerbated by the lack of voting rights (not granted until 1962) and systematic exclusion from employment and housing markets. The contrast between salesmen visiting The Flats with modern goods and the recurring floods that destroy the humpy highlights this stark inequality.

Echoes of the Stolen Generations: Whilst the play is set before the peak of child removal policies, it carries the weight of intergenerational trauma. Nan's secret about rape and Dolly's fears for her own future reflect the ongoing threat of violence and family separation that haunted Aboriginal communities. These personal struggles cannot be separated from the broader historical context of policies designed to erase Aboriginal identity and culture.

The river and the dump: Natural and man-made margins

Two recurring locations carry symbolic weight throughout Rainbow's End: the Murray River and the town dump. Both represent the margins to which Aboriginal people have been pushed, literally and figuratively.

The Murray River: Flowing through Yorta Yorta Country, the river represents a complicated relationship with the land. Traditionally a life-giver and spiritual presence, the river has become a destroyer for the Dear family. It floods twice during the play, forcing evacuations and destroying possessions. These floods symbolise not only natural disaster but also the disrupted connection to Country caused by dispossession. The river's unpredictable tides mirror the unpredictable "policy tides" that sweep through Aboriginal communities—government decisions about housing, welfare and relocation that arrive without warning and cause devastating upheaval.

The town dump: Dolly's regular trips to scavenge at the rubbish tip reveal another form of marginalisation. The dump contains discarded white excess—materials and goods thrown away by prosperous townsfolk but repurposed by Aboriginal families to maintain dignity and comfort. There is bitter irony in these "treasure hunts," where one community's waste becomes another's necessity. The dump scenes expose the material inequality at the heart of 1950s Australia whilst also demonstrating Aboriginal resourcefulness and adaptability.

These natural and man-made fringe locations underscore the literal marginalisation of Aboriginal people, pushed to the edges of both geography and society.

Stagecraft: Creating the world on stage

Harrison's approach to staging reinforces the themes embedded in the setting. The play uses minimalist realism, suggesting locations through carefully chosen details rather than elaborate sets. Projections of the humpy and sound effects of the river create atmosphere whilst allowing for fluid transitions between locations.

The set design shifts fluidly as town locations overlay the home space, reflecting how the white world constantly intrudes upon Aboriginal domestic life. Lighting choices amplify this invasion: warm, golden tones illuminate the humpy during family scenes, creating intimacy and safety, whilst cold, harsh lighting accompanies flood scenes and encounters with white authority figures like Coody. This lighting contrast heightens the sense of threat and vulnerability.

Harrison grounds confronting historical truths in realistic 1950s details: the specific cakes Nan bakes, the frocks Gladys sews, the language and rhythms of daily life. This realism serves an educational purpose for audiences unfamiliar with this history, making the systemic injustices visible and undeniable.

Understanding setting for VCE analysis

When analysing setting in Rainbow's End, move beyond simple description to argument. The setting actively shapes character struggles and embodies the play's themes.

Integration approach: Connect physical and symbolic dimensions.

Textual evidence: Always anchor observations in specific details. A strong analytical point might be: "'That bloody river' (Scene 1) evokes not only literal floods at The Flats but also the overwhelming policy floods that sweep through Aboriginal lives." This combines quotation, location and interpretation.

Context weaving: Link setting to broader historical forces.

Paragraph structure: Organise analysis by moving from historical context to physical sites to symbolic effects to thematic links. For instance, begin with assimilation policy, describe how Rumbalara housing embodies this policy, explain the symbolic meaning of government surveillance in this "improved" housing, then connect to themes of belonging and resistance.