A black past, a black prospect : squatting in western New South Wales 1879-1902

Abstract

The period from 1860 to the early years of the twentieth century was a critical one in the colonization of Australia. It has been characterised by N.G. Butlin as "the phase of Australian economic development dominated by the problem of utilizing (Australia's) natural resources". At first sight this appears self-evident. Certainly the geographical extension and intensification of colonial settlement during the Long Boom of 1861 to 1891 and the accompanying accumulation of productive assets made a central contribution to the shape of the colonies' later development, as did the economic restructuring forced on the colonies by the subsequent depression. However, to take expanding resource utilization and capital formation as the central problem or fundamental determinant of the form of colonial development is a different matter. The manner of colonial resource utilization was ultimately constrained by the limitations of the resource base and of contemporary technology, but on closer scrutiny these physical limits appear to have been less pressing than were economic and political conflicts over who should control, and reap the products of, the colonies' natural resources. Show more