Technology, the conquering of distance, and British capital have been more important to Australian history than political decisions, while sport not labor is an unusually accurate mirror of society’s elite. As at 1789, Australia was the world’s largest surviving zone of hunter-gatherer society; Aboriginal tribes continued fighting one another more than the invading British. When later denied civil rights, it was because Aboriginals had shunned European ways. Aussie winters are sufficiently warm for hay to grow all year, so sheep farming prospered and wool became the leading export most years from 1835-1975, until commodities took over; Australia had long since become an export-led economy. In developing society, urbanization was strong than in North American because land was more expensive; half of land revenues were spent to bring out settlers who tended to stay in cities; more than half of first-time new farms failed. Steam engines changed men’s working conditions after 1860, 50 years before domestic products (e.g., stoves, refrigerators, washing machines) revolutionized women’s conditions. Railways, which expanded by a factor of 9 over 1871-91, began to link cities to the outback towns; most inter-city travel was by ship. Universal suffrage (including the secret or ‘Australian’ ballot) came very early in world society. Unions, which got started during the Victorian gold rush of the 1850s, preferred shorter working hours to higher wages, because most men were single. Owing to leisure time and mild winters supporting the grass fields, sport prospered. The football clubs of Melbourne and Geelong are older than any in the in English (soccer) Premiership, and playing grounds grew large so people could watch. Australia, from 1850, was the first country to value spectator sports because they demonstrated determination, stamina, courage, and the will to succeed. In some ways, the author notes, Australia has first-rate sports and second-rate work culture because the latter been protected from competition. By 1891, most Aussies were literate.

In 1889, English General J.B. Edwards published an influential report noting each state had its own railways, post offices, immigration laws, import duties, and (most of all) military units. The report captured Henry Parkes’ imagination, who called a convention in Sydney in 1891 to promote federation; John Quick championed a constituent delegated to write a constitution. The Australian Natives Association (ANA) was the leading force in the push for independence, which progressed in an environment conscious of defending the continent from invasion, the recession of 1893, and comparisons with America. Sydney, confident of regaining supremacy from Melbourne, saw federation as a Victorian conspiracy. Changes were to require a majority of population; but this does not make Australia inherently conservative; rather, during the 20th century would-be reformers marshalled their forces too narrowly. The movement was slowed by the economic slump of 1893, which was deeper than in Europe: 13 of 22 banks which issued notes closed. Amid the campaigning, Aussie politics were reshaping: Labor, a unionist but not socialist party, ascended in New South Wales and Queensland, Radical-Liberals held power in preeminent Victoria and South Australia.

In the first half of the 20th century, Labor’s success exemplified the country’s egalitarian spirit: government should regulate work and ‘tall poppies’ were to be cut down. Post Federation, Labor tended to be (British) immigrants, and Liberals natives. The ‘White Australia’ policy, much like those pertaining in the USA, Canada, or New Zealand, is most notable because it persisted longer. At the turn of the century most immigrants were actually Italians, Greeks, or Russian Jews. The policy hurt Queensland economy, dependent on Polynesians as well as a law requiring shipping to be owned by natives. 1907 saw the introduction of a basic wage standard. Simultaneously, the emergence of oil transformed Australian coal self-sufficiency to import dependency. World War I, particularly the travails of Gallipoli and the Somme, sealed Australia’s nationhood in ways statutes could not (but Western Australia voted to secede in 1933!). In 1921 Labor reversed course by adopting a socialist platform, while Irish Catholics became moderates and city manufacturers more dependent on protection than farmers. World War II brought the country closer to America. Moderate John Curtin reformed the economy and brought Canberra (i.e., national government) into national life. In the postwar years, English immigrants were outnumbered 3:1 by Europeans, the start of a significant cultural change. Everyone had a job due to autarchic manufacturing policy (as well as Europe’s need for its own goods); in sum, manufacturing was now more important than agriculture. Over 1945-70, though the era is strongly associated with Menzies, the economy reshaped Australia more than politics; the autarchic policy sought to avoid the perils of World War 2. Australia was self-sufficient during the 1973 energy crisis, for in the 1970s mining replaced agriculture and capital was attracted to a stable country, which found a new client in Japan. Menzies distanced the Liberals, based in Victoria, from corporate business while enticing suburban women and returned servicemen. Anti-communist feeling hurt Labor, spawning a breakaway Catholic party which tended to side with the Liberals. Hawke began ending protectionism, Keating financial regulation, but labor itself was not exposed to competition. At century’s end, the Mabo decision inventing Aborigine claims to land was judge-made law, badly done and so drawing the courts into a legislative role. Post 1990, social and cultural matters separated the parties more than politics proper. While it was fashionable to declare Australia an Asian county, in fact it was sui generis, Paris being closer to Asia than Canberra and the closest reaches of Australia being a desert. In this way, distance remains a pivotal force; but the country, now one of the world’s four oldest democracies, feeds itself plus 80 million overseas, justifying white settlement.