Under the Southern Cross we Stand, a sprig of Wattle in our hand

Pangur

Donor
Am interested in getting people's thoughts as to if I should continue this. My original plan was to move to around 1893 and then proceed in amore detailed manner up to WW1 and beyond, but it does seem to be a timeline that has not attracted a great deal of interest and I guess that makes me wonder if a continuation is a worthwhile exercise....happy to hear people's thoughts on the matter.
My vote is that you keep going. You have set the scene or very close to having done so which will allow a jump like you suggest
 
Yeah look, i'm an Aussie and i'm loving this, unfortunately we are vastly outnumbered online and the lack of traffic on this story reflects that, ideally i'd love to see you take this to it's conclusion however it is as always the authors choice.
 
Yeah look, i'm an Aussie and i'm loving this, unfortunately we are vastly outnumbered online and the lack of traffic on this story reflects that, ideally i'd love to see you take this to it's conclusion however it is as always the authors choice.
This is fun but I don't have a lot of knowledge of Australia's history so I don't comment much at all.
 
I like this, too--and take it to the present day, if possible. This is a history about an area of the world I don't know much about, and I'd love to see how this Australia does in World War I and II...
 
Am interested in getting people's thoughts as to if I should continue this. My original plan was to move to around 1893 and then proceed in amore detailed manner up to WW1 and beyond, but it does seem to be a timeline that has not attracted a great deal of interest and I guess that makes me wonder if a continuation is a worthwhile exercise....happy to hear people's thoughts on the matter.
I love this timeline and would love to read more of it.
 
I am interested and do not know that much about Australian history. I knew more about Austrian and Russian history, along with European history in general, so I was probably more engaged with some of your other works.

This is interesting and thought provoking. I had really never considered how an Australia that was not so closely linked to the UK and British Empire would affect the world.

Interesting question, who does ITTL Australia now trade with most? Are they still commercially entwined with the UK? If an Imperial Preference system develops in the future, will they be inside or out? For that matter, are the British interested in developing further commercial ties? Could the British try to informally reintegrate Australia into the British Empire economically?
 
I personally wish I understood more about Australian history but anything with a good topic that I enjoy and a good POD will get a watch from me. I say keep going.
 
I am interested and do not know that much about Australian history. I knew more about Austrian and Russian history, along with European history in general, so I was probably more engaged with some of your other works.

This is interesting and thought provoking. I had really never considered how an Australia that was not so closely linked to the UK and British Empire would affect the world.

Interesting question, who does ITTL Australia now trade with most? Are they still commercially entwined with the UK? If an Imperial Preference system develops in the future, will they be inside or out? For that matter, are the British interested in developing further commercial ties? Could the British try to informally reintegrate Australia into the British Empire economically?
Prob with the US? And Europe definitely. Maybe Lat Am countries too? China's a willing option too considering how good their relations are with each other.
 
Seems to be more interest than I thought, so will keep on pumping things out. I will move things in 1-3 year gaps to 1893, then there will be some major changes politically and things will "anchor" themselves and progress will slow down chronologically, as we move towards Pacific conflicts and political changes.
 
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Pangur

Donor
Seems to be more interest than I though, so will keep on pumping things out. I will move things in 1-3 year gaps to 1893, then there will be some major changes politically and things will "anchor" themselves and progress will slow down chronologically, as we move towards Pacific conflicts and political changes.
Excellent! A suggestion for you, perhaps add a almost wiki chapter - e,g, population, currency, maybe size of navy and army?
 
I'm really enjoying it so far and your plan sounds good. The direction you've taken the (expanded) nation so far, the Maori influence, the lack of a white Aus policy and increased acceptance of the Chinese especially could lead to some very interesting dynamics and a very different 'Australia' down the track and I'm here for it. Very keen to see where you go with it but understand it is a _lot_ of effort to create a timeline like this and appreciate that early modern Australasia is a bit of a niche interest area.
 
Excellent! A suggestion for you, perhaps add a almost wiki chapter - e,g, population, currency, maybe size of navy and army?
Yes, I think that would be a good approach as well. May do another couple of updates, first, however, so as to get to the late 1880's.
 
The Parkes years, - A biography
An extract of "Profiles of the Southern Protectorate" by Webster, Zhong and Grimditch, Port Nicholson, 1922

Henry Parkes was the dominating figure in the political landscape of the Australasian Federation, serving as Prime Minister for almost the entirety of the 1860's, 1870's and 1880's, until finally replaced as Prime Minister in 1891, first by Adye Douglas, latterly by George Reid, until finally the Australasian league were to lose dramatically in a landslide in the 1893 election, blamed roundly for the country's economic collapse, predating a world depression. He was Australasia's 1st and 3rd Prime Minister. It gave the perception that the party could not control it's own members from infighting. Parkes was to serve as Prime Minister for over 30 years, a remarkable span of time. Of course, he was assisted by many remarkably talented people, but, by 1888, his government was seen as tired, barely gaining a majority. The death of Richard Plantagenet as Lord Protector in late 1889 further weakened him, losing a valuable ally, as did the loss of Peter Lolor earlier the same year. During that time, the country underwent an enormous change in character.

He had laid the foundations of a new country, with the establishment of functioning State and Federal Governments and parliaments. In his years of government, he established the Australasian Public Service and a federal judiciary. He implemented uniform customs and excises that reflected a reasonable balance between free trade and infant industry protection. Against consistent pressure to do so, he refused to ban on Chinese migration, in fact, in areas like Fiji that had such a labour shortage for the sugar trade, he actually encouraged this. It was a policy that would continue unabated until the Immigration restriction Act of 1892 came into force, leading to the first "Protectorwhite" period. He was instrumental in in the establishment of the National railway network and the insistence on standard gauge track. Perhaps more importantly, he was one of the main architects of assisted immigration, which was to see the population of the country move from 1.4 million at the time of Eureka to over 7 million. The Poor Law in 1862 provided the first type of social security in Australasia, whilst the Native Act gave Australian aboriginals their own land reservations, although this, of course was chipped away at. Boundaries of States were changed and set.

In 1866, Australasia's currency was decimalised, 100 pence to a Pound, the later of which was often called a buck. The first coins were issued nationally in 1867, the first notes in 1883. Hours of work were regulated for workers and in the 1880's, with unions becoming more organised, standard working hours were codified.

What allowed such high numbers of immigration , a building boom, the establishment band expansion of the countries armed forces, the establishment of communication systems that linked all of Australia to the rest of the world via telegraph and the establishment of a country wide rail system that finally reached all the way to Perth in 1888 was quite simple. Money. The main driver of all of this was mining and the subsequent export of mining products.

In Victoria (later Aurelia) alone, income from gold production alone approached 500 million pounds in that 1850-1890 period. Melbourne population rose from 70,000 in 1850 to 765,000 in 1892. What kept Parkes in power so long was that these were economic boom years. The boom fuelled by gold, other minerals like silver, lead, zinc, copper and nickel as well as the traditional exports, wool and sugar.

The gold rush in Victoria was followed by others in New South Wales and Capricornia. Then finally the discovery of large deposits at Southern Cross in 1882, Coolgardie in 1884 and Kalgoorlie in 1886. This was see Swan River's own population explosion. There were other finds as well. Nickel on New Caledonia. Silver at Zeehan. Silver, lead and zinc at Broken Hill. All these extended the boom years.

It was a period of sustained growth that lasted some 40 years. It was to trigger an acute labour shortage despite its steady influx of migrants, and this pushed up wages until they were the highest in the world. Wages were driven up in the 1880's by strong unionism, no matter how unsustainable they were, yet, for a time, Australasia was known as "the working man's paradise" in those years. By 1891, Melbourne was the fifth largest city in the English speaking world after New York, London, Chicago and Philadelphia. Sydney was the sixth. Rather than building high-density apartment blocks like European cities, Melbourne expanded in all directions in the characteristic Australasian sprawl. The new suburbs were serviced by networks of trains and trams which were among the largest and most modern in the world. In the 1880s the long boom culminated in a frenzy of speculation and rapid inflation of land prices known as the Land Boom. Both the National and State governments shared in the wealth and ploughed money into infrastructure, particularly railways. Huge fortunes were built on speculation, leading to corruption. Local, English, American and German banks lent freely to speculators, adding to the mountain of debt on which the boom was built.

It was in this period of time that the Australasian Armed Forces were expanded to provide a presence nationwide, gaining a core of 22,000 troops, bolstered by large numbers local militias. The navy, which had previously consisted of just a handful of vessels, expanded to include two ironclads, four armoured frigates, two armoured corvettes, seven screw sloops and 15 gunboats. 1882 was to see the laying down of four large and modern cruisers, the Christchurch Class, armed with 1 9 inch and 10 6 inch guns on 6,000 tons and capable of 18 knots.
Christchurch Class cruiser
russia--admiral-kornilov-1891-protected-cruiser.png.adb088256a55853ccb7f465ca5d67694.png


Parkes had overseen a dramatic shift in foreign relations and trade as well. In trade, there was a huge shift. In 1850, 92% of Australasias trade was with the United Kingdom. By 1890, this had fallen to 32 percent, with the United States taking second place with 25, Germany and Austro Hungary 19, China 9, the rest of Asia 6 and the remainder of Europe 9. Trade with Germany had soured and trade with the Far East had expanded greatly. All this, plus the decentralized nature of the territories governed by Australasia, saw a huge increase in her merchant marine, which by 1891 comprised 709 ships of over 700,000 tons. Shipping was so short, that clippers ships going out of commission in England were brought into service in Australasia to ply runs. There were many needed to provide services to the disparate areas controlled by the country, with daily sailings from Melbourne to Port Nicholson and Auckland, as well as UK ports. Regular services existed to Fiji and to San Fransisco via Hawaii, as well as Singapore, Hong Kong via Australasian China, as well as Shanghai.
 
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22 Jan 1882, - Currency moves
22 January 1882, Protectorate Printing Office, Melbourne, Aurelia

James Bradley Cooke looked at the new designs for the banknotes that would be issued on behalf of the National Bank. They comprised notes in the value of 1, 2, 5, 10, 20, 50 and 100 pounds. They were, of course, redeemable for gold. They were the first issue of official government banknotes. Of course, as was to be expected, the various State government had stuck their oars into the process, demanding that the notes effectively be printed in 13 different ways, each showing a state capital. It was the sort of stupidity that could only be found as part of the political process. It was scarcely any wonder that it took 15 years of wrangling for the former colonies to agree on a joint stamp issue.

Of course, gold and silver coins still were the preferred form of currency and were minted in Adelaide, Melbourne, Sydney and Auckland, in the values of but notes were much more compact and transferable than the coins, the later of which were issued in denominations of 3 Pounds, 1 Pound, 1/2 Pound (all gold), 25, 10, 5 and 3 Pence (all silver), 1, 1/2 and 1/4 Pence ( all copper) and 1/8 pence Zinc.
Australasian Banknotes and 1 Pound Coin
bank-note-national-bank-of-australasia-100-pounds-1895-g.jpg


bank-note-national-bank-of-australasia-5-pounds-1903-g.jpg


nab-gi-front-1896-f-melb-mvr4m-sw.jpg

nab-specimen-adelaide-obverse-1893.jpg

australia-1870sy-sovereign-pcgs-au58.jpg
 
Looks like Australasia is going to be hit by a depression soon. On the plus side, by the time WW1 rolls around they should be on track to recovery and they shouldn't be as affected by the US Great Depression due to having safeguards built from their own experience.

Plus with WW1 I could see them sit it out while building and selling tons of munitions and weapons to the British colonies fighting, supplying them quicker and easier then needing suppy to come from the home isles.
 
An extract of "Profiles of the Southern Protectorate" by Webster, Zhong and Grimditch, Port Nicholson, 1922

Henry Parkes was the dominating figure in the political landscape of the Australasian Federation, serving as Prime Minister for almost the entirety of the 1860's, 1870's and 1880's, until finally replaced as Prime Minister in 1891, first by Adye Douglas, latterly by George Reid, until finally the Australasian league were to lose dramatically in a landslide in the 1892 election, blamed roundly for the countries economic collapse, predating a world depression. He was Australasia's 1st and 3rd Prime Minister. It gave the perception that the party could not control it's own members from infighting. Parkes was to serve as Prime Minister for over 30 years, a remarkable span of time. Of course, he was assisted by many remarkably talented people, but, by 1888, his government was seen as tired, barely gaining a majority. The death of Richard Plantagenet as Lord Protector in late 1889 further weakened him, losing a valuable ally, as did the loss of Peter Lolor earlier the same year. During that time, the country underwent an enormous change in character.

He had laid the foundations of a new country, with the establishment of functioning State and Federal Governments and parliaments. In his years of government, he established the Australasian Public Service and a federal judiciary. He implemented uniform customs and excises that reflected a reasonable balance between free trade and infant industry protection. Against consistent pressure to do so, he refused to ban on Chinese migration, in fact, in areas like Fiji that had such a labour shortage for the sugar trade, he actually encouraged this. It was a policy that would continue unabated until the Immigration restriction Act of 1892 came into force, leading to the first "Protectorwhite" period. He was instrumental in in the establishment of the National railway network and the insistence on standard gauge track. Perhaps more importantly, he was one of the main architects of assisted immigration, which was to see the population of the country move from 1.4 million at the time of Eureka to over 7 million. The Poor Law in 1862 provided the first type of social security in Australasia, whilst the Native Act gave Australian aboriginals their own land reservations, although this, of course was chipped away at. Boundaries of States were changed and set.

In 1866, Australasia's currency was decimalised, 100 pence to a Pound, the later of which was often called a buck. The first coins were issued nationally in 1867, the first notes in 1883. Hours of work were regulated for workers and in the 1880's, with unions becoming more organised, standard working hours were codified.

What allowed such high numbers of immigration , a building boom, the establishment band expansion of the countries armed forces, the establishment of communication systems that linked all of Australia to the rest of the world via telegraph and the establishment of a country wide rail system that finally reached all the way to Perth in 1888 was quite simple. Money. The main driver of all of this was mining and the subsequent export of mining products.

In Victoria (later Aurelia) alone, income from gold production alone approached 500 million pounds in that 1850-1890 period. Melbourne population rose from 70,000 in 1850 to 765,000 in 1892. What kept Parkes in power so long was that these were economic boom years. The boom fuelled by gold, other minerals like silver, lead, zinc, copper and nickel as well as the traditional exports, wool and sugar.

The gold rush in Victoria was followed by others in New South Wales and Capricornia. Then finally the discovery of large deposits at Southern Cross in 1882, Coolgardie in 1884 and Kalgoorlie in 1886. This was see Swan River's own population explosion. There were other finds as well. Nickel on New Caledonia. Silver at Zeehan. Silver, lead and zinc at Broken Hill. All these extended the boom years.

It was a period of sustained growth that lasted some 40 years. It was to trigger an acute labour shortage despite its steady influx of migrants, and this pushed up wages until they were the highest in the world. Wages were driven up in the 1880's by strong unionism, no matter how unsustainable they were, yet, for a time, Australasia was known as "the working man's paradise" in those years. By 1891, Melbourne was the fifth largest city in the English speaking world after New York, London, Chicago and Philadelphia. Sydney was the sixth. Rather than building high-density apartment blocks like European cities, Melbourne expanded in all directions in the characteristic Australasian sprawl. The new suburbs were serviced by networks of trains and trams which were among the largest and most modern in the world. In the 1880s the long boom culminated in a frenzy of speculation and rapid inflation of land prices known as the Land Boom. Both the National and State governments shared in the wealth and ploughed money into infrastructure, particularly railways. Huge fortunes were built on speculation, leading to corruption. Local, English, American and German banks lent freely to speculators, adding to the mountain of debt on which the boom was built.

It was in this period of time that the Australasian Armed Forces were expanded to provide a presence nationwide, gaining a core of 22,000 troops, bolstered by large numbers local militias. The navy, which had previously consisted of just a handful of vessels, expanded to include two ironclads, four armoured frigates, two armoured corvettes, seven screw sloops and 15 gunboats. 1882 was to see the laying down of four large and modern modern cruisers, the Christchurch Class, armed with 1 9 inch and 10 6 inch guns on 6,000 tons and capable of 18 knots.
Christchurch Class cruiser
View attachment 791200

Parkes had overseen a dramatic shift in foreign relations and trade as well. In trade, there was a huge shift. In 1850, 92% of Australasias trade was with the United Kingdom. By 1890, this had fallen to 32 percent, with the United States taking second place with 25, Germany and Austro Hungary 19, China 9, the rest of Asia 6 and the remainder of Europe 9. Trade with Germany had soured and trade with the Far East had expanded greatly. All this, plus the decentralized nature of the territories governed by Australasia, saw a huge increase in her merchant marine, which by 1891 comprised 709 ships of over 700,000 tons. Shipping was so short, that clippers ships going out of commission in England were brought into service in Australasia to ply runs. There were many needed to provide services to the disparate areas controlled by the country, with daily sailings from Melbourne to Port Nicholson and Auckland, as well as UK ports. Regular services existed to Fiji and to San Fransisco via Hawaii, as well as Singapore, Hong Kong via Australasian China, as well as Shanghai.
Love this story! What is the Christchurch class cruiser based on? Keep up the good work!
 
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