Abstract This article argues that the existing network of roads, arising from socially mediated human behavior, represents a well-preserved feature present across a broad region and contains latent historical information that can be retrieved using appropriate analytical techniques. It presents a method combining iterative cost path modeling and proximity analysis to reconstruct patterns of historical movement, and uses the results of this analysis as a heuristic tool to delineate regional social distinctions evident in characteristics of land appropriation and settlement within an area on the peripheries of the goldfields of central Victoria. The results of the least-cost route and proximity analysis presented in this paper delineate variations in patterns of movement across the study area that suggest distinctions in community development and character, adding depth and nuance to histories of the gold fields and their later years and supporting alternatives to assumptions of linear historical change.

中文翻译：

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作为潜在信息的路线——维多利亚时代金矿周边历史路线的空间分析

摘要 本文认为，由社会中介的人类行为引起的现有道路网络代表了一个广泛地区存在的保存完好的特征，并且包含可以使用适当的分析技术检索的潜在历史信息。它提出了一种结合迭代成本路径建模和邻近分析来重建历史运动模式的方法，并使用该分析的结果作为启发性工具来描绘在土地征用和定居特征中明显的区域社会差异。维多利亚中部的金矿。