Backbencher

Lecture four was titled "Settlement: Convicts and Pilgrims". Dr. Isern first showed us some pictures of Sydney, sheep stations of the South Island, and mining scenes from Thomson Gorge. Sydney was where the convicts landed. After all the pictures we got into the mythistory in Australia and New Zealand. Austin Fife stated that historians are the ones who are the disciplinarians of myths.

We then talked about how the convict colony came about. Crime was out of control in England and overcrowding became an issue. The first fleet landed in Sydney and there was a negative reaction to the landof the new colony. Arthur Phillip was appointed the taskmaster governor. A lot of criminals were either petty criminals or habitual criminals.

The colonization of New Zealand was quite different from Australia. Edward Gibbon Wakefield promoted the ideal of a planned, systematic colonization of New Zealand. Wakefield wanted to somewhat replicate the British social order only without the frontier chaos. The planned colonization worked to begin with, but it didnt last. The gold rush overwhelmed the ideal and produced unplanned growth. There were five planned colonies in New Zealand from 1840 to 1850 that included; Port Nicholson, Nelson, Taranaki, Otago, and Canterbury.

What i really liked about this lecture is that the chapter in Clark's book about the convict colony sort of went along with what we were talking about in class. I feel that I have a pretty good grasp on the information about the convict colony. I also like learning about the differences of how Australia and New Zealand were colonized. It was interesting to see how two places that are so close to each other can be colonized so differently. My only question is, what would be different if the Australian colonization had been planned out and New Zealand had been the one with the convict colony?