Backbencher

"Settlement: Convicts and Pilgrims," was the title of the fourth lecture. We talked about the first places the convicts landed, and we looked at some pictures. Along with that we discussed the mining on the land. Chinese men without families followed earlier gold minors, they lived in very small caves, and ored simply ore sites. I found it very interesting that Australians house such a fear of some sort of 'Asian overflow.'
Moving on in the lecture Mr. Isern presented the topic of Mythisotries in Australia and New Zealand. The history of the two countries changed upon the request of the occupants of Australia and New Zealand.
The background of the transportation of convicts was discussed. Georgian England was having serious crime problems, so they decided to ship all of the 'scoundrels' to a different country, halfway around the world. My favorite part of the convict transport was the decision to ship the unmanageable convicts in Australia to 'Van Diemens Land.' The idea was to just continue to ship them further and further away instead of trying to manage it without the use of a ship.
New South Whales was the first convict town. The convicts were the social outcasts of England. Finally Australia began to get sick with the convict transport. The settlers there didn't want any more of Englands unwanted.
From there we discussed the colonization of New Zealand. It was very different from the settlement of Australia. New Zealand was planned, there were no convicts in New Zealand, New Zealanders were much better then 'that!' The settlers were only going to get small portions of land, the land was sold at a price high enough to keep unwanted people out, but low enough to allow good people in. The goal was to reproduce English life, only better. But the pastoralists came in and went against the grain. The idea of a perfect community was gone, pastoralists would have basically nothing to do with it. Then Gold was found and the life of settlers would never be the same again.