The Road to Batemans Bay : : Speculating on the South Coast During the 1840s Depression.

• Author: Greig, Alastair.
• TeilnehmendeR: Australian National University Press,
• Place / Publishing House: Canberra : : ANU Press,, 2023.; ©2023.
• Year of Publication: 2023
• Edition: 1st ed.
• Language: English
• Physical Description: 1 online resource (248 pages)

The Road to Batemans Bay is the story of competing ventures to create 'the Great Southern Township' on the South Coast of New South Wales in the early 1840s. The idea of developing the furthest reaches of settlement was linked to the hopes of southern woolgrowers for a road from their properties to the coast, over the Great Dividing Range. The township proponents dreamed that having a quicker and cheaper connection to Sydney would allow them to open a port second only to Port Jackson. The scene begins with the proposed coastal township of St Vincent, in an age of optimism: settlement is expanding, exports are growing and land prices are soaring, generating Australia's first land boom. Before long, however, the colony experiences a catastrophic economic depression whose 'pestilential breath' infects those with a stake in the coastal townships. Alastair Greig follows the fate of these individuals, while also speculating on the broader fate of South Coast development during the mid-nineteenth century. Greig gives a unique insight into many aspects of colonial life--including the worlds of Sydney's merchants, auctioneers, land speculators, surveyors, map-makers and lawyers--as well as its maritime challenges. The Road to Batemans Bay is a chronicle of how Australia first developed its land-gambling habit and how land speculation led to the road to ruin -- Source other than Library of Congress.

Table of Contents

1. Introduction -- 2. The first land purchasers on Batemans Bay -- 3. Puffing St Vincent -- 4. Competing for southern pre-eminence -- 5. Clint the engraver and his survey of St Vincent -- 6. John Staple and the trials of speculation -- 7. Long Beach and Australia's first lottery -- 8. Mercantile chicanery: It's a way that they have in Australia -- 9. The PS Clonmel and the southern shipping lane -- 10. Conclusion.