Backbencher
Weblog for HIST 381 at NDSUTuesday, February 28, 2006
RP: 4th Lecture
Lecture 4 was about the settlement of Australia and New Zealand. The whole convict settlement thing is probably one of my favorite facts about Australia. It's just a little silly that England claimed all of that land, and the only really interesting thing they could think to do with it was to put the criminals there. The description of the prison situation in England is also amusing. The snobby upper class often seemed ready to just ship off all of the members of the lower class who weren't needed for labor. The prison barges also made me think of the book Great Expectations. One of my roommates wanted to get a Norfolk pine tree, it made me laugh and I told him about the Botany Bay of Botany Bay. While the settlement of Australia was largely haphazard and forced, New Zealand had a planned settlement. Upper class people, particularly the non-eldest son of a prosperous family, were encouraged to move to New Zealand and help establish a "quality" colony. I was interested to hear that shepherds and their dogs were shipped to New Zealand as well. I'm kind of curious as to why the shepherds would want to go. If there wasn't much work for them in England? If there was more potential for money and advancement? Or if they just wanted to feel like explorers? I guess technically it could be all of the above.
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