By 1850, New South Wales (NSW) appeared to have entered a period of long term economic stability which was almost entirely dependent on the production of fine wool. The prospects of such a future vanished with the discovery of large quantities of alluvial gold in 1851. The population of the...

The growth in the railway network in the 1880s and 1890s and the development and adoption of new farming techniques changed the semi-subsistence selector in New South Wales (NSW) into a commercial farmer. They also led to a large increase in the production of wheat and dairy produce and,...

The depressed prices of agricultural commodities and the decline in farm incomes in the 1930s destroyed farmers' and governments' belief in a free market for a generation. In spite of the rapid development and introduction of new farming techniques after the Second World War, and the consequent...