What influences did the British have on Australia?

Answer 1

South Australia was the only Australian colony which never had convicts. It was designed to be Australia's first completely free settlement.

Initially, a British group led by Edward Gibbon Wakefield were looking to start a colony founded on free settlement instead of convict labour. Unlike other colonies, where settlers were allocated free land according to their own assets, Wakefield suggested that the land be sold.

Charles Sturt's discoveries that the Darling River flowed into the Murray, and that the Murray River flowed to the ocean, were significant, for they opened up huge tracts of land along the Murray River, and allowed for the development of paddle-steamer transportation of goods and passengers along Australia's inner waterways, between the colonies.

Many of the free settlers who came to South Australia were of German origin (including other Germanic groups such as the Wendish and Prussians). Their primary reason was to escape the religious persecution in their own country. In the 1800s, under King Friedrich Wilhelm III, German/Prussian Lutherans suffered religious persecution. Friedrich Wilhelm was an autocratic king who believed he had the right to create his own state church from the two main Protestant churches - the Lutheran church and the smaller Reformed church - in a united Prussian state church. This would effectively remove the right of Lutherans to worship in a way of their choosing. Penalties for non-adherance to the state religion were severe. Many Lutherans immigrated to Australia to escape the persecution.

Other free settlers came because they discovered they could mine valuable metals. The Cornish and the Scottish came for this reason.

Answer 2

The British continued to create colonies in Australia after the 1800s, and well after the First Fleet, because they needed to cement their claim on the Australian continent. The French, with whom the British were at war at that stage, were interested in Van Diemen's Land (now Tasmania), so the British sent representatives to dissuade the French from making a claim. Knowing the interest of the French in other parts of the vast continent, moves were made to establish a colony in the north (Moreton Bay - now Queensland - was established as another penal colony) as well as a completely free colony which became South Australia, and another official colony in Western Australia, to prevent the French from making a claim.

Answer 3

A huge influence, as Australia was a British colony and it's government judicial, transport, health and education systems were all originally derived from British models.

Answer 4

for cheap land and hoping to strike it lucky for gold

Answer 5

they needed room for the convicts