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.