The period after the gold rushes, 1860 to 1890, saw over-seas borrowing become more important than domestic savings as a source of investment funds. Urban house building, construction of transport and communications facilities took a major part of Australian investment. Each of these main avenues of investment promoted urbanisation. During this time the influx of workers from the declining gold fields caused an intense shortage of housing; resulting in the building industry absorbing about one-third of total Australian investment and several building booms. Unlike in Britain, urbanisation had stimulated the growth of industrialisation.
By the nineteenth century, Australia had a relatively affluent, well-housed, well-fed and a healthy population. The first increase in population occurred in 1830 when a bounty system, to catch escaped convicts, was introduced and immigration was assisted on a large scale. During the 1850’s the gold rushes bought the next influx of immigrants and Australia’s population more than doubled over a period of ten years. In this time before 1860, population grew largely due to immigration rather than natural increase. In most urban areas a higher rate of population or ‘an increasing degree of urbanisation’ may be gained through natural increase, from immigration or a sizeable movement from rural to urban areas. In Australia it was a merging of these three factors that encouraged urbanisation. Yet, over seas migration was the most important source of Australian metropolitan population growth, followed closely by natural increase. Rural to urban drift of population was much less important, except during the post gold-rush periods. The demographic variables such as age structure, fertility, mortality, and marriage rates were also of considerable economic, social and political significance, advancing urbanisation.
By nineteenth century standards, the role of colonial governments in Australian economic and social development was considerable. Land settlement was closely supervised, as well as immigration which governments were essential in promoting. In the period from 1860 to the turn of the century the government was the major employer of labor and the leading investors responsible for nearly one half of total investment during that time. This period in time is described as ‘the decisive phase in Australian economic growth.’ Australia is seen to cut free from ‘British domination’ and set their boundaries for independent economic and political development. Since, in Australian colonies political and administrative activity was highly centralised, they played an important part in metropolitanisation. Immaterial operations, such as places where information is obtained and exchanged and where decisions are made, were also important causal factors of material and economic functions.
One leading political issue was land policy. Although, through their methods of rural land allocation or disposal, Australian governments never deliberately promoted urbanisation, various types of land policies did have the effect of promoting urbanisation. By increasing prices for Crown Lands after 1831, the governments effectively discouraged the more poor farmers from buying out their leases rather than seeking employment in rural areas, many who were denied land preferred the urban alternative.
In 1788, when Australia was first settled, the people of that time, convicts and free settlers, generally came from a rapidly urbanising society and the majority were from urban areas. They initiated a technology and a set of values that gave rise to a high degree of urbanisation in the nineteenth century. When immigration appeared in the 1830’s, migrants looked for the comforts of the capital cities. The security, contact and comfort of the capitals were also highly valued. Urban cultural and recreational organisations attracted people to the cities and kept them there, even when there was no work, and more often that not, promoted urbanisation. Governments frequently criticised the unwillingness of immigrant as well as native-born workers to move to rural areas to seek employment even when the urban areas were unable to supply work.
Yet, as attractive as the cities were, people still encountered the problems of rapidly urbanising cities. Sanitation in the suburbs was a major problem as urbanisation increased. By the end of the 1860’s Victoria had experienced a cholera scare, a smallpox outbreak and it also had periodic outbreaks of fatal diseases such as typhoid, diphtheria, scarlet fever and measles. Although in 1867 amendments in Victoria’s public health legislation gave councils more power to enforce the removal of filth from privies, backyards, stables, cowsheds, pigsties, abattoirs and streets, many councils were indifferent in reinforcing these laws.‘… a complete magnet of attraction for fever and death. Sanitary regulations are utterly ignored within its boundaries; the streets are seldom cleaned.’ (1869, Melbourne Herald)
Through the1870’s a greater effort was put to cleaning up the disposal of night soil in the Melbourne suburbs, yet even with these efforts it was still a major problem. Unlike Sydney and Adelaide, which had both started on a underground sewerage systems by 1880 that replaced pans and cesspits for over a quarter of their populations by the end of that decade, Melbourne was slow to recognise the problem. It wasn’t until 1897 that a new sewerage system was actually in operation.
However, Melbourne wasn’t the only city to be behind in sanitary regulations as urbanisation progressed. Hobart was also a late starter. Drainage regulations in Hobart were not put in place until the 1890’s and even then no real headway was made until later that decade. Sanitary conditions in the south were so bad that in the first quarter of 1900 there was an outbreak of the bubonic plague. Although the plague scare had the beneficial effect of cleaning the city, the work was not continued and by 1901, the accumulation of refuse was still a common cause of complaint.
In 1883 there was an urban and communications boom that occurred mainly in Queensland and New South Wales. The reduced pastoral funds in Brisbane and Sydney greatly encouraged the transfer of funds to urban building. In Sydney during the 1880’s little was expected from the city council. The visible progress of the governments railways, tramways and schools and in the private enterprises; of buildings, were much more important than anything councils did. The people of Sydney saw their rapid rise of urbanisation as a source of pride and were in no way ready for the shock of the 1890’s. When the London ‘money market’ dried up and the lavish investments in railways, pastoral properties and urban land were no longer lucrative it created an imbalance in the Australian economy. Collapses in provisional companies occurred and as profits fell, businesses were force to close and wages pushed down.
Yet the ‘blind optimism’ of the 1880’s was in no way singular to Sydney. Melbourne had prospered more than the rest of Australia during this flourishing time of advancing urbanisation and so they suffered more. In 1891 unemployment escalated. Building tradesmen and laborers were hit hard. Their industry had been grossly exaggerated by mania and so new building almost dried up. As over-sea investors pulled out their funds, confidence disappeared and business dried up. The less prosperous industrial and commercial enterprises were then ruined due to falling demand. Thus, a general unemployment ensued. By 1897 unemployment began to temper off as business picked up and began the journey back to prosperity.
For Hobart, economic depression in the 1890’s brought a severe setback to the tourist business. Like Adelaide, who’s economic depression had occurred a decade earlier in the 1880’s, Hobart had already lived in a period of decline and only just started to get back on track. The 1890’s saw Hobart as just another colonial town, but the group which had initiated construction of the local institutes used the period to firmly entrench the position of a petty hierarchy which was able to resist most threats of deteriorating to the former depressed community it once was.
The economic depression of the 1890’s showed the structural weaknesses in the economies of Australian colonies. Although rampant unemployment and social dislocation were not the characterisations of the period as it was more a phase of economic stagnation and uncertainty. Australian colonies were well placed to benefit from the changing structure of world economy and as colonial accumulation accelerated during the urbanisation of the1870’s and 1880’s Australian economic development grew. Investment in the building and pastoral sectors expanded during this boom. Yet during this time, leading export and import replacement industries did not expand quickly enough to finance the increasing influx of producer and consumer goods imports and outflow of payments to over sea’s investors. The continual deterioration in the balance of payments placed a break on foreign capital inflow after 1888, and thus on investment, especially in the building and pastoral sectors that had once been thriving. By 1891 there was a rapid fall in general economic activity, which was reinforced by the falling prices of wool.
By the end of the 1890’s Australians had been forced to re-examine their own society and make do with what they had. The failures of the old politics were partly to blame for the depression, embezzlement and fraud running rampant in the lead up to the break down, and so new goals were to be set. It was at this time that the Labour party was formed with a program in hand for social reform. The reforms were full political democracy, government action to improve the lot of the wage earner and to provide elementary social services and greater equality of opportunity.
Australia had seen an age of rapid urbanisation that set the foundry for Federation, and the strong country that we see today. The factors the promoted urbanisation were unique to Australia. Yet, through her hardships came stabalisation and further urban growth.
‘ … It declared its first principle to be the unity of all classes and the avoidance of controversy, without which the great aim ‘Advance Australia’ could never be realised.’ (George Nadel. 1957)
References
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Glynn, S., Urbanisation in Australian History 1788-1900 2nd ed. (Melbourne, 1975)
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Bate, Weston., Victorian Gold Rushes (Victoria, Australia 1988)
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Diamond, D. & McLoughlin J.B., Political Economy of Australian Urbanisation. (Oxford, 1984)
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Macintyre. S., A Concise History of Australia. (Victoria, 1999)
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Butlin. N.G, Investment In Australian Economc Development. 1861–1900. (Cambridge, 1964)
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Barret, B. The Inner Suburbs. (Carlton, 1971) p. 132
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Petrow, S. Sanatorium of the South. (Hobart, 1995) p. 112
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Grant, J & Serle, G. The Melbourne Scene 1803 – 1956. (Melbourne, 1957)
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McCarty, J.W & Schedvin., Australian Capital Cities. (Sydney, 1978)
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McCarty, J.W & Schedvin., Urbanization in Australia. (Sydney, 1974)
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Dunstan, D. & McConville. The Outcasts of Melbourne. (Sydney, 1985)
Weber, A. F., The Growth of Cities in the Nineteenth Century: A study of statistics, (New York, 1963) as cited in Glynn, S., Urbanisation in Australian History 1788-1900, 2nd ed (Melbourne, 1975) p.6
Glynn, S., Urbanisation in Australian History 1788-1900, 2nd ed (Melbourne, 1975) p.8
Diamond, D. & McLoughlin J.B., Political Economy of Australian Urbanisation .(Oxford, 1984) p.35
Diamond, D. & McLoughlin J.B., Political Economy of Australian Urbanisation .(Oxford, 1984) p.14
Glynn, S., Urbanisation in Australian History 1788-1900, 2nd ed (Melbourne, 1975) p.13
Glynn, S., Urbanisation in Australian History 1788-1900, 2nd ed (Melbourne, 1975) p.14
Glynn, S., Urbanisation in Australian History 1788-1900, 2nd ed (Melbourne, 1975) p.20
Bate, Weston. Victorian Gold Rushes (Victoria, Australia 1988) p.12
Glynn, S., Urbanisation in Australian History 1788-1900, 2nd ed (Melbourne, 1975) p.16
McCarty, J.W & Schedvin., Australian Capital Cities. (Sydney, 1978) p.160
Bate, Weston. Victorian Gold Rushes (Victoria, Australia 1988) p.25
Glynn, S., Urbanisation in Australian History 1788-1900, 2nd ed (Melbourne, 1975) p.21
Glynn, S., Urbanisation in Australian History 1788-1900, 2nd ed (Melbourne, 1975) p.22
Glynn, S., Urbanisation in Australian History 1788-1900, 2nd ed (Melbourne, 1975) p.25
Butlin. N.G, Investment In Australian Economc Development 1861–1900. (Cambridge, 1964) p.414
Bate, Weston. Victorian Gold Rushes (Victoria, Australia 1988) p.27
Glynn, S., Urbanisation in Australian History 1788-1900, 2nd ed (Melbourne, 1975) pp 40
Glynn, S., Urbanisation in Australian History 1788-1900, 2nd ed (Melbourne, 1975) pp 40-41
Glynn, S., Urbanisation in Australian History 1788-1900, 2nd ed (Melbourne, 1975) p.31
Glynn, S., Urbanisation in Australian History 1788-1900, 2nd ed (Melbourne, 1975) p. 47
Glynn, S., Urbanisation in Australian History 1788-1900, 2nd ed (Melbourne, 1975) p. 56
Glynn, S., Urbanisation in Australian History 1788-1900, 2nd ed (Melbourne, 1975) p. 48
McCarty, J.W & Schedvin., Urbanization in Australia. The Nineteenth Century. (Sydney, 1978) p.67
Glynn, S., Urbanisation in Australian History 1788-1900, 2nd ed (Melbourne, 1975) p.55
Glynn, S., Urbanisation in Australian History 1788-1900, 2nd ed (Melbourne, 1975) p.53
McCarty, J.W & Schedvin., Urbanization in Australia. The Nineteenth Century. (Sydney, 1978) p.78
Barret, B. The Inner Suburbs (Carlton, 1971) p. 132
Barret, B. The Inner Suburbs (Carlton, 1971) p. 133
McCarty, J.W & Schedvin., Australian Capital Cities. (Sydney, 1978) p.94
McCarty, J.W & Schedvin., Australian Capital Cities. (Sydney, 1978) p.96
Petrow, S. Sanatorium of the South. (Hobart, 1995) p. 112
Petrow, S. Sanatorium of the South. (Hobart, 1995) p. 111
McCarty, J.W & Schedvin., Australian Capital Cities. (Sydney, 1978) p.40
McCarty, J.W & Schedvin., Australian Capital Cities. (Sydney, 1978) p.43
Grant, J & Serle, G. The Melbourne Scene 1803 – 1956. (Melbourne, 1957) p. 127
Grant, J & Serle, G. The Melbourne Scene 1803 – 1956. (Melbourne, 1957) p. 126
McCarty, J.W & Schedvin., Australian Capital Cities. (Sydney, 1978) p.169
Diamond, D. & McLoughlin J.B., Political Economy of Australian Urbanisation .(Oxford, 1984) p.35
Diamond, D. & McLoughlin J.B., Political Economy of Australian Urbanisation .(Oxford, 1984) p.35
Glynn, S., Urbanisation in Australian History 1788-1900, 2nd ed (Melbourne, 1975) p.73