Australian Economic History : An Alternative View

Abstract

The 1980 National Aboriginal Education Conference went on record as saying it saw that as an ‘area of concern’ history textbooks on Aborigines are racist.

Australians’ economic history is racist in that standard economic texts do not discuss Aborigines at all, or mention them only peripherally.

The economic history of Australia is usually written from one or two perspectives, both European. The first involves the flow of external capital, labour and entrepreneurship into what was essentially an empty land awaiting exploitation. This has led to emotive pictures of Australia’s economic development in terms of hardy pioneers driving sheep and cattle into remote parts, and hard-working men clearing land for crops, both groups subject to the usual environmental hazards of droughts, floods and natives.

The second view has led to the picture of the country riding on the sheep’s back. In economic terms this meant that the profits earned by wool exports (and later gold) generated capital within the country for economic expansion. This is the Staple theory of economic growth. Neither viewpoint takes into account the Aboriginal people. Nor could they, because they are theories of Capitalism, and nineteenth century Capitalism did not have a human face. The profit motive was supreme. Aborigines were not seen as being at all useful to the process of economic growth once it had got under way.

Up to a point, however, the Aborigine was useful. He could guide settlers and explorers across inhospitable landscapes and lead them to water. Having done this, he had outlived his usefulness and was hounded to the edges of the new economic landscape – to extinction in many places.