There is no doubt that during the latter half of last century [that is, the nineteenth century] the Australian people were acutely aware of their isolation, and were determined to turn to account the freedom it gave them by building up something like an earthly paradise for the common man. Or perhaps for the uncommon man of the future!
Vance Palmer, ‘The legend of the nineties’, Melbourne University Press, paperback edition, 1963, p. 9; first published 1954.