Читать книгу Australian History For Dummies - Alex McDermott - Страница 17

From the early 1850s through to the late 1880s, Australia went through a long boom, and it was during this period that the phrase ‘workingman’s paradise’ first began to be regularly applied. Obviously, a fair bit of grandiose hyperbole is associated with the phrase (hello — paradise?!) but it also contained an important element of truth.

Life for workers in Australia was dramatically better than what they were used to in Britain and other parts of the world. With all the demand for building, construction and the rest, unemployment was largely non-existent, the eight-hour day became almost the norm and pay rates were generally good. In Australia, an ordinary white male worker could work and put enough away in savings to eventually buy his own house — an impossible dream for most workers in Britain.

During the long boom, schooling began to be supplied by the state. It was compulsory (which had the effect of eliminating child labour) and secular (non-religious) to avoid playing favourites with the different religious denominations of different immigrants from Britain. Most remarkably of all, the schooling was free. Parents from all different classes started sending their children to the same schools, which had been precisely the legislators’ intent. (See Chapter 10 for more on the politics and social reforms made during the 19th century long boom.)

For as long as the boom period sustained itself, the occasionally mentioned desire for federation — uniting the various self-governing colonies into one nation — struggled to gain much traction. Different citizens in different colonies would at times talk about intercolonial union, and politicians held tentative conferences. However, for as long as the passionate central beliefs of colonial Australia — progress, ever-increasing material wealth and chasing after the various luxury consumer goods that go with it — were able to be maintained, it was hard to stir up sufficient enthusiasm.