History, Expanding Colonization

Between the 1820s and the 1880s Australia gradually outgrew its convict origins, developing the institutions of a free, democratic, and capitalist society. From their beginnings in New South Wales and Van Diemen’s Land, Australians established new colonies covering the continent, expanded pastoral and agricultural industries in the interior, and began the exploitation of gold and other minerals, especially in the eastern colonies. Each of the new colonies bore the imprint of its distinctive origins.