Fix this text
Early Settlement in South
Fix this textAustralia
Fix this textby W. K. HANCOCK
Fix this textAdelaide is celebrating this year the centenary of organized settlement in South Australia, and the
Fix this textGeographical Magazine has much pleasure in presenting to its readers the following record of
Fix this textthose early days. The reproductions of contemporary prints show that among the founders of South
Fix this textAustralia there were artists of no mean quality. Professor Hancock, an Australian by birth, was
Fix this textformerly Professor of Modern History at the University of Adelaide and now holds the Chair of
Fix this textHistory at Birmingham University. He also wrote the volume on Australia in Messrs Benn's
Fix this textModern World Series
Fix this text“Pray where is this South Australia?” a
Fix this textnoble lord asked disdainfully, and a bored
Fix this textLord Chancellor answered, “Somewhere
Fix this textnear Botany Bay”. In those days, little
Fix this textmore than a century ago, a thousand miles
Fix this textor so hardly seemed to matter in remote
Fix this textAustralia, a country to which aristocratic
Fix this textsociety was contemptuously indifferent.
Fix this textMiddle-class society, however, was already
Fix this textbeginning to take notice. In the late
Fix this text’twenties and early ’thirties hard-headed
Fix this textmanufacturers were following with eager
Fix this textattention the expansion of Australian wool
Fix this textproduction, which was destined within
Fix this textlittle more than ten years to outstrip the
Fix this textimposing lead established by Germany’s
Fix this textflocks. By 1830 New South Wales already
Fix this texthad an important place on Bradford’s
Fix this textmaps. And then, all of a sudden, South
Fix this textAustralia claimed the attention of a wider
Fix this textcircle. Politicians, philanthropists, specu-
Fix this textlators, political economists and editors dis-
Fix this textcovered it as a theme of absorbing interest.
Fix this textFor this discovery two unusual men were
Fix this textchiefly responsible—one of them a man of
Fix this textaction, the other a man of theory. The
Fix this textman of action was Charles Sturt, the
Fix this textbravest and gentlest of Australian ex-
Fix this textplorers. At a time when the squatters,
Fix this textAustralia’s adventurous flock-masters, were
Fix this textalready competing with each other in the
Fix this textrace for ‘better country farther out’, Sturt,
Fix this textby a brilliant and heroic journey, solved the
Fix this textmost baffling geographical riddle of Eastern
Fix this textAustralia. To Lake Alexandrina in the
Fix this textpresent State of South Australia he traced
Fix this textthe outflow of the vast Murray-Darling
Fix this textriver system, which extends as far north as
Fix this textthe Queensland border. He reported his
Fix this textdiscovery at Sydney in May 1830, and by
Fix this textthe end of the year people in London were
Fix this textalready talking about it, although the
Fix this textGovernor of New South Wales saw fit to
Fix this textwithhold official notification of it until
Fix this textApril 1831. It sometimes happens that
Fix this textreticence produces a stronger impact on
Fix this textIt's easy and takes two shakes of a lamb's tail!
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Hancock, W. K & National Library of Australia. (1936). Early settlement in South Australia Retrieved April 24, 2025, from http://nla.gov.au/nla.obj-3416663798
Hancock, W. K and National Library of Australia. Early settlement in South Australia : , 1936. Web. 24 April 2025 <http://nla.gov.au/nla.obj-3416663798>
Hancock, W. K & National Library of Australia. 1936, Early settlement in South Australia , viewed 24 April 2025 http://nla.gov.au/nla.obj-3416663798
{{Citation
| author1=Hancock, W. K.
| author2=National Library of Australia.
| title=Early settlement in South Australia / by W.K. Hancock
| year=1936
| section=p. 387-399 : ill. (some col.), map, port. ; 25 cm.
| issue=1893
| publisher=
| url=http://nla.gov.au/nla.obj-3416663798
| id=nla.obj-3416663798
| access-date=24 April 2025
| via=Trove
}}
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