Backbencher

Lecture 4 was about the settlement of Australia and New Zealand. Australia, we found out, was settled by convicts that the British sent there. The British thought they were cleansing the homeland by evicting these convicts from the country. The Rocks was the area of Australia that was first settled. The area became to be known collectively as Botany Bay, and the area still holds that name today. At first the settlers had quite a bit of hardships to deal with, mainly the negative reactions to the land by the officers and starvation. The British did also settle other areas besides Botany Bay, such as Van Dieman's Land and New South Wales. The last area to recieve settlers/convicts was Western Australia in 1868. New Zealand, on the other hand, was not settled by convicts, but was a planned colonization. The government only provided small parcels of land for the settlers, which was sold at a sufficient price and farmers were brought in to work the land. The British wanted New Zealand to be like a mini Britian, only better. Everything went well there for a little bit and then the discovery of gold shot Britians plans to hell. With gold in the picture, New Zealand had a huge rush of immigrants, mainly the people that the British were trying to keep out (Australians, American, and the Chinese).
In this lecture I thought it was interesting that the Aussie's take pride in having a convict in there family because that makes them a true Australian, whereas in New Zealand it is considered very bad if you find one in your family tree. It's interesting how two countries both colonized by Britian can be so different from each other.