The economic development in New South Wales, 1855-72

Abstract

INTRODUCTIONIn 1783 England was forced to recognise the Independence of the American Colonies, and with this event the first British Empire came to an end. With the landing of Governor Phillip at Botany Bay in 1788, we may date the beginning of the second. In England, in the interim, the prisons had become overcrowded, the attempt at disposing of the convicts in Africa had failed, and it was thought that the new land which Captain Cook had discovered in the Pacific in 1770, might possibly be the solution of the problem which was at that time facing the Colonial Office. Under these circumstances, New South Wales was settled as a penal and military colony in 1788, and, for the next fifty years, her history, though beset by colonial disputes and misunderstandings, was one of general progress and developement, until in 1855 she was ready to throw off the direct control of the Mother Country, and to prove to the world the fallacy of the old dictum that Colonies are like fruit which, when ripe, fall from the tree.New South Wales is the eldest of the Australian Colonies, and for that reason alone she has always taken the leading part. In the early years of the nineteenth Century she was the sole Colony in Australia, but in 1825 Van Diemen's Land became a separate settlement, in 1829 Western Australia was cut off and in 1836 South Australia became independent. By an important Act of 1850 the boundaries of New South Wales were declared to be the Pacific Ocean to the Eastward, from Cape Howe in the latitude 37th degree 30' to the thirtieth parallel of South latitude, from the Pacific Ocean along the Murray River to the 141st. degree of East longitude, since that was the Eastern boundary of the Colony of South Australia to the Westward. Within these limits there was an area of two hundred and seventy thousand square miles, and as such New South Wales remained until 1859. In this year the long agitation of the northern districts came to a climax; the will of wisdom had matured beneath Colonial discipline and industry, and the Moreton Bay District became the separate colony of Queensland. In extent, however, New South Wales still covered a large area, and one which offered ample scope for great economic developement. Shut off by the Great Dividing Range, the Coastal Areas watered by short, swiftly flowing rivers mostly sterile, but furtherinland the larger river, the Murray, flowed through broad plains which were wall suited tor the pastoral industry. In 1860 Gregory tried so solve the mystery of the interior, only to fine a comparative desert, though in the south the land was well watered by the Lachlan and the Murrumbidgee, while in the far west, the Darling, with it's many tributaries, helped to make the surrounding districts of economic importance. Generally speaking, the soil of New South Wales was not the best, as the climate was mostly hot and dry, except in the Coastal areas where the rainfall was comparatively good. For this reason, droughts were frequent, and devopement naturally suffered from their reoccurrence.