men, may have retarded the influx of genuine
colonists, he prepared the way for settlement by constructing roads,
promoting exploration, and raising public buildings, so that when he
returned home the population of New South Wales had increased fourfold,
and its settled territory in a much greater proportion. This territory
comprised all English settlements on the east coast, and included large
tracts of what is now known as Queensland, which did not become a
separate colony until 1859.

The early history of Australia, it has been said, is chiefly a tale of
convict settlements, bush-ranging, and expeditions of discovery. There
is much truth in this saying, but the real basis of Australian
prosperity was the introduction of sheep-farming on a large scale, after
the merino-breed had been imported and acclimatised by Macarthur at the
beginning of the century. Long before the region stretching northward
from the later Port Phillip grew into the colony of Victoria,
sheep-owners were spreading over the vast pastures of the interior,
though many years elapsed before the explorer Sturt opened out the great
provinces further westward.

The development of Australia made rapid progress during the generation
following the great war. Though Australia itself and Van Diemen's Land,
now called Tasmania, were still in the main convict settlements, free
settlers had been arriving at Sydney for some time, and in 1817 they
began to arrive in moderate numbers in Van Diemen's Land. In 1825 that
island had sufficiently progressed to be recognised as a separate
colony. The attempt to found a colony in western Australia in 1829 was,
on the other hand, an almost complete failure. But in 1824 a new centre
of colonisation in New South Wales had been established at Port
Phillip. Meanwhile a sharp cleavage of parties had arisen. The convicts
and poorer colonists were opposed to the large sheep-owners, who were
endeavouring to form an aristocracy. Governor Macquarie favoured the
convicts, and Governor Darling (1825-31) the sheep-owners. In 1823 a
legislative council, consisting of seven officials, had been instituted;
in 1828 it was developed into one of fifteen members, chosen entirely
from among the wealthiest colonists.

Gibbon Wakefield's _Letter from Sydney_, published in 1829, marks an
epoch in the history of Australian colonisation. In this work he
proposed that the land should be sold in small lots at a fairly high
price to settlers, and t