Graeme Davison, JW McCarty & Ailsa McLeary, ed.
Australians 1888, Fairfax, Syme & Weldon Associates, Broadway, NSW, 1987
One of the volumes in Australians: A Historical Library. The authors write about land and people, the regional mosaic, private lives and the public domain. Graeme Davison’s opening chapter describes rather diffident centennial celebrations and his final chapter discusses a link to Britain that was still strong.
The imperial connection [he writes] was organic, and therefore open to change and development. Australian society still reflected its British origins, but in significant ways, both material and intellectual, it had developed distinctive features. Even when imperial and Australian interests did diverge, these controversies were depicted as squabbles in a family. The mother country accepted the young colonies as partners in the advance of British civilisation and power. Many colonists still referred to Britain as “home”, while counting themselves to be Australians by birth and sentiment. (p. 408)
