intake in Canada. It lacked the Dutch inflow in South Africa. For at least 170
years it lacked the more diverse inflow of Europeans into the USA.
A characteristic of Australasia was that, for a long period, a high proportion
of its immigrants arrived only because their shipping fares were subsidized or
fully paid for. The 160,000 convicts arriving before 1868, when the last British
convict landed in Western Australia, were fully paid for. More than half of the
free migrants—known usually as assisted migrants—arriving before 1970
came in chartered migrant ships or in the mail steamships, and were enticed
into the country by subsidies from the Australian or British governments. In
contrast, it was cheaper for European emigrants to go to the Americas than to
Australia. Moreover, they had a higher chance of returning home if they were
disappointed by the new pioneering life in North America. The climate and
vegetation of North America, especially, was also more to their liking (Blainey,
1966, ch. 7).
Cheap land in North America was another magnet. In the face of these
attractions, Australia, in the period 1788 to, say, 1914, could not compete.
A subsidy was vital. Naturally the government which paid the subsidy selected
the migrants: naturally they preferred British migrants. In the period 1840 to
1900, South Australia and Queensland chose a minority of German migrants,
but elsewhere migrants from the British Isles were the dominant category
amongst the assisted incomers.
The assisted migrants typified Australia and New Zealand. That had excep-
tional consequences. The British and Australian governments regulated ship-
board health and living conditions, and food supplies on the long voyage to
Australia and New Zealand: most migrants were their responsibility. In con-
trast, transatlantic migrants were not treated so benevolently. When the
assisted migrants landed, they expected the government to provide work for
them, if the economy was struggling. Moreover, at very lean times, govern-
ments arranged to recruit fewer immigrants or none. In the depressed 1890s,
assisted as well as free migration to Australia almost ceased.
It is reasonable to suggest that this distinctive long-term recruiting scheme
not only increased the tendency of migrants to expect and encourage an
activist government in the new land of hope, but also helped to pave the
way for the rise of trade unions, which, by 1890, held unusual power in many
Australian industries. The trade unions’power ultimately depended more on
their ability to retain members in bad times than in good times. The distinct-
ive immigration policy often prevented an inrush of newcomers in bad times.
The unions’power also helped the rise of the Labor Party, which vigorously
and gladly accentuated this trend towards regulationism after 1900.
The gold rushes of the 1850s attracted a very high proportion of unassisted
migrants. Most were men, especially single men. This initially aggravated the
serious shortage of women that was a hallmark of British Australia. In 1830,
Australian Exceptionalism: A Personal View