Explore "A Short History of Australia" by Ernest Scott on Textopian. Read with annotations and highlights.
Land grants--Who the squatters were--Pastoral districts and licences-- Bourke's policy--Special surveys--The pound per acre system--Gipps's policy--Conquest of Australia by the colonist--Ridley's stripper--Farrer's Federation wheat--John Macarthur and the wool trade--The aboriginals.
Great Britain, by becoming possessed of Australia, assumed the task of disposing of an area as large as three fourths of Europe including Russia. Very much of this country was equal in fertility to the richest soil in the world, and it was capable, given favourable economic conditions, of growing every product that can minister to the necessities or the luxury of mankind. All grades of climate, from tropical to temperate, were to be found within this capacious dominion. All kinds of domestic animals would thrive in it. Many nutritious grasses unknown elsewhere covered its great plains. Immense forests of valuable timber flourished on its hillsides. Its rocks were veined with minerals. A wonderful treasury of precious metals was revealed within a little over half a century.