EUROPEAN SETTLEMENT
After a shaky start as settlers adapted to an unfamiliar land, the settlement at Sydney Cove grew rapidly in the early years of the nineteenth century, as thousands of free settlers took advantage of land grants and promised riches. Britain's stringent inheritance laws, under which firstborn sons claimed all land titles, led second and later sons in particular to the chance to strike out for themselves in this land of opportunity. Adelaide, in 1836, and Melbourne, in 1837, was settled by just such opportunists. Transportation of convicts ended in 1864. It is estimated that around 1, 60,000 convicts were sent to Australia over 76 years, most of who stayed on once they were freed.
While the number of convicts was insignificant when compared to the free settlers who streamed into Australia in the latter half of the nineteenth century-attracted by gold, cheap land, and the promise of a new life-convict labor played a major role in building Australia's nascent cities. Strict inheritance laws saw that land in Britain was passed from father to eldest son, and could not be subdivided. Younger sons traditionally entered the clergy or the military.
The promise of generous land grants in New South Wales drew the younger sons of England's wealthy to emigrate and establish stock stations of a magnitude they could never have imagined back home many of which still exist today. As freed convicts joined the increasing number of settlers attracted to the promise of this burgeoning southern land (where labor was in great demand), many began to appreciate that they were better off than if had they stayed in an overcrowded and recently industrialized England. Together, these disparate colonials and their children battled hosThe environments to establish an indigenous culture based on solidarity and a distaste for authority.
BOOM AND BUST
The colonies experienced a major boost to their economies when gold was found, first in New South Wales in 1851 and then in prodigious quantities in Victoria. The ensuing gold rush had a dramatic effect, as men left the land and crews jumped ship to seek riches on the gold fields. Fortune-seekers arriving in overcrowded ships came from all corners of the globe.
At its peak during the year 1852, over 86,000 people arrived from England a lone. Untamed shanty towns were populated by men who worked hard during the day and at night dreamed of great fortunes, as they sat around the campfires or huddled in pubs to discuss their day with the other diggers. During this period, colonial Australia's first "heroes" were born bushrangers, who were admired for challenging authority.
The term was coined in 1805 to describe escaped convicts who had turned to robbery to survive in the bush. Many poor farmers and laborers also tried their hand at bush ranging. Some with colorful sobriquets such as "Yankee" Jack Ellis, Captain Moonlight and "Mad Dog" Morgan became household names, while songs celebrating their exploits became popular.
The best known bushranger was Ned Kelly who, after his mother was wrongfully arrested, ambushed and killed three troopers. Outlawed in 1878, he and his gang held up banks and successfully evaded the police for two years. Ned Kelly was finally trapped in Clenrowan in June, 1880, where he defied the police, protecting himself with homemade armor. Realizing that they could not penetrate his plough-share mask they shot at his feet, which were unprotected. Captured, Kelly was sentenced to death and hanged in Melbourne on November 11, 1880. His last words were: "Such is life." The prosperity that gold brought to Australia accelerated the country's development. Roads and railway lines were laid down, linking the colonies and creating a new-found confidence around the nation. People began talking about an Australian identity that incorporated the ideas born in the gold fields of mate ship and egalitarianism. A sense was developing that Australia, rather than Britain, was now home.
