Making Rural Australia : An Economic History of Technical and Institutional Creativity, 1788-1860

Making Rural Australia challenges two common by contradictory views of Australian history. One is the 'fatal shore': Australia was a place of horrible destitution and those miserable beginnings set the course for Australia of today. The other is the 'lucky country': European settlement began in a bountiful Arcadia and so wealth and prosperity have simply flowed forth, stifling creativity and technical and scientific endeavour. The book argues that successful European settlement of Australia owed a lot to its prodigious natural resources and to the technical and institutional creativity at the time.