Details

Following the defeat of the labour movement in the great strikes of the early 1890s, a despondant William Lane formed the New Australia Movement, with the intention of starting a utopoian socialist settlement on land in Paraguay.

The settlements suffered considerable hardship and internal divisions (a number, led by Lane, established a break-away settlement near-by at Cosme). Some settlers returned to Australia but a number remained.

Resources

Books

• Lane, E. H., Dawn to Dusk, SHAPE, Brisbane, 1939. Image PDF Details

Book Sections

• Webb, Sidney and Beatrice, 'Extract', in Austin, A.G. (ed.), The Webbs' Australian Diary 1898, 1898. Image PDF Details

Newspaper Articles

• 'Objectives of New Australia, November 1892', New Australia (Wagga Wagga), vol. 1, no. 1, 19 November 1892. Transcript HTML Transcript PDF Details
• 'Objectives of New Australia, December 1892', New Australia (Wagga Wagga), vol. 1, no. 2, 17 December 1892. Transcript HTML Transcript PDF Details
• Gilmore, Mary Jane, 'Colonia Cosme; the New Australia experiment', Daily Telegraph (Sydney), 5 November 1902. Image PDF Details
• Lane, William, 'New Australia', The Worker [Queensland] (Brisbane), 24 August 1890. Image PDF Details