australia

• AUSTRALIA : ECONOMIC

  • Many Scots went for the Gold Rush and some gold camps had a distinctive Scottish character.
  • Scots excelled in shipping and trade. McIllwrath, McEacharn and Burns Phillips established a very successful shipping business.
• AUSTRALIA : ECONOMIC

  • Scots made a major impact in farming in Australia. John MacArthur introduced the first merino sheep.
  • A considerable number of Scots went to Australia to invest in mining. In the 1850s Scots James and Alexander Brown set up large coal mines in Newcastle, New South Wales. By 1914 their mines were producing 8% of all coal in the region.
• AUSTRALIA : CULTURE/RELIGION

  • Two of Australia’s national songs, ‘Waltzing Matilda’ and ‘Advance Australia Fair’ were written by Scots.
  • Catherine Helen Spence was born in Melrose, Scotland, and went on to become Australia’s first female political candidate and first female journalist.
• AUSTRALIA : CULTURE/RELIGION

  • The Church of Scotland played an important role in developing education in Australia. In Victoria there were a large number of Presbyterian secondary schools and Melbourne Academy was known as the ‘Scotch College’. By 1842 there were 42 parish schools in New South Wales established by Protestant Scots.
• AUSTRALIA : NATIVE SOCIETIES

  • There were regular disputes between settlers and indigenous people over land.
  • Some Scots were responsible for brutal attacks on indigenous people. In 1857 the Hornet Bank Massacre 100 people were killed by the Scotsman William Fraser.
• AUSTRALIA : NATIVE SOCIETIES

  • Violence towards the indigenous populations meant that many tribes were eventually wiped out and therefore their language and culture also disappeared.