Invading 1850's Australia.

In the 1850's Australian gold was a major source of income for the British empire. If Britain goes to war with another naval power (France) what is the likely hood of Victoria and New South Wales being targeted for invasion because of its bountiful gold, and what could the outcome be for the invading force and for the Australian continent?
 
Would a power invade to dig the gold themselves or at least tax the bejesus out of it? Or are you thinking of a military raid to rob the gold deposits of Melbourne and Sydney?
 
If the Dutch are allied with or friendly to Britain's opponents, they could use bases in the Dutch East Indies. I think the best bet is a raid to wreck the facilities in the major ports (Sydney and Melbourne, IIRC) and take as much gold as they can carry. I'm envisioning something similar to the attack on San Francisco in How Few Remains.
 
Well, certainly NSW and the Victorians were worried about the possibility. Hell, even South Australia feared a naval raid:rolleyes:. That is why so many coastal fortifications were built. I remember reading a while back that at one stage Melbourne was the most heavily defended port in the empire. That was later than the 1850's though.
I am really not sure if anyone, even the French could project power so far. The US from California maybe? Do not forget that there were garrisons and the Australian Squadron though.
 
Well, certainly NSW and the Victorians were worried about the possibility. Hell, even South Australia feared a naval raid:rolleyes:. That is why so many coastal fortifications were built. I remember reading a while back that at one stage Melbourne was the most heavily defended port in the empire. That was later than the 1850's though.
I am really not sure if anyone, even the French could project power so far. The US from California maybe? Do not forget that there were garrisons and the Australian Squadron though.

If the Dutch were friendly to whatever power was doing this, then the Dutch East Indies are a very good base for this. The French are the only semi-reasonable power to pull this off, as they were the only power which came close to matching British overseas power projection in this era. Does anyone know more about French-Dutch relations during this period?
 
Well, certainly NSW and the Victorians were worried about the possibility. Hell, even South Australia feared a naval raid:rolleyes:. That is why so many coastal fortifications were built. I remember reading a while back that at one stage Melbourne was the most heavily defended port in the empire. That was later than the 1850's though.
I am really not sure if anyone, even the French could project power so far. The US from California maybe? Do not forget that there were garrisons and the Australian Squadron though.


Agreed, I once visited the fortifications outside of Brisbane. They had some pretty big guns for what was a small town back then. Inside they had an exhibit that showed all sorts of weird maps claiming that the French, Dutch, Portuguese,Americans, Russians, and Germans were planning on invading or at least trying to steal coal and gold depending on the flavor of the War Scare of the Month.

The description made it sound like no one took it seriously but they built the fortifications anyway.
 
Colonial, and more modern, Australia has a long history of paranoia about foreign invasion. I'm not sure but I think just about every colonial power other than perhaps Denmark was suspected of being a threat at one time or another. Even today there are some nutters in Cowra, central western NSW, who fear invasion by Indonesia. Of Cowra, over 10,000km from Timor!

There's a good scene early in the 1980s movie Gallipoli where the eager hero is off to enlist, dragging on a young but cynical Mel Gibson, and they meet an old bushie and tellis him Australia is at war and they were off to sign up to fight the Germans. The bushie asks "why?" and the hero says "because Kaiser Bill wants to take all this away from us". The old bushie squints through the heat haze at the parched desert around them and says "he's bloody welcome to it".

Colonial Australia built some very impressive/expensive defences when the distance factor alone was a major obstacle for an invader. An even greater deterrent is that invading 1850's Australia meant war with the greatest power of the age (Britain). If France, Russia etc weren't already at war with Britain, why would they want to trigger a major conflict over a minor outpost? If the aggressor was France, surely it would make more sense for them to go for a Carribean island, or maybe a west African colony? Russia would likely aim for India, America would find parts of Canada or Jamaica more valuable etc. I'm not clear how hampering the trade in gold from Australia is going to help any rival to Britain? The Royal Navy was unstoppable in the 1850s and will quickly recontrol the seas around Australia sinking or blockading whatever forces the invader sends. And then the RN does the same to the invader itself, starving them into submission if necessary.
 
Top